Equestrian Societies
by DrFirefox
Summary: Yet another HIE fic. Eddie Warren wakes up in Equestria as an Earth Pony. How did he get there? Will he get home? And what happens at night?
1. Chapter 1

I woke up, and instantly knew something was wrong. I couldn't put my finger on it, though, and rolled onto my side to get more comfortable. What could be so bad that it couldn't wait until morning? After all, it was dark outside. I became more aware as I felt my arms move into an odd position. It felt like, instead of at my sides, they were on my chest. As I opened my eyes fully, I spotted my nose. It was hard to tell in the dark, but it almost looked completely pink. I looked down at my body, and my blood ran cold.

The first thing I saw were my arms, but it appeared that my entire hands had been removed, leaving only stumps. I tried wiggling my fingers just to be sure, and felt nothing. I mentally scolded myself for tempting fate, thinking nothing could stop a good nights sleep. Still lying down, I craned my neck to see the rest of my body, feeling something at the end of my back. What I saw made me freeze in horror.

Not only was I lacking feet in the same way as my hands, but I could see the back end of a horse, including a tail. Checking my front arms again, I saw that that was part of a horse too. Does that mean my lack of hands and feet were actually... Hooves?

I screamed. An actual, full blown, high pitched, unmanly scream. I screamed until my throat was hoarse, and I tried to scream after that. I was feeling my throat burn up when I finally stopped. As soon as I stopped, I could hear hurried footsteps. My first thought was to hide, lest they see my as a horse. I was about to remind myself that I wasn't really a horse, and that this was supposed to be some kind of sick, horrific joke when I realised they were the clip-clop of hoofsteps. I almost laughed at the irony of the situation, somebody finding a man-horse while riding a horse (or was it just a coincidence?), when I saw the cause.

It was a short horse who, from what I could see in the dark, was coloured orange. Its yellow mane appeared to be styled with a hair band, and it was wearing a proper cowboy hat. I almost laughed out loud at the absurdity of it, but I fainted instead. I suspect it wasn't much of a show, as I was laying on my side already, but I was too busy being unconscious and having a flashback to see if it was.

I was in a house, at a party. It was the night before, apparently, and I was just dancing with the girl of my dreams. We had both had a few drinks, but we were both genuinely having fun. I was finally living something that was close to my greatest dream. However, the orange horse was soon at the party, dancing in an oddly human fashion, staring at me with terrifying, quizzical eyes, and I realised something was wrong. Not after long, my unconscious dream was slowly becoming more unrealistic and I finally woke up, eventually.

I stirred on the hay that I lied on, this time prepared for what I was going to see when I looked down at myself, but I shivered nonetheless. In the clear daylight, I could see that I appeared to be coloured bright pink, and light purple hair slid over my eyes as I angled my head to see myself better. I thought back to my dream, and remembered that the horse I saw before I collapsed was actually dancing. Did this mean I saw it in a human light? As I pondered my dreams implications deeper, I heard a sound.

I glanced up, and saw that I was in a barn. The door began to open, and I tensed. More colourful horses? People? I had no idea what lie behind the rapidly opening door. The same and only horse I'd seen stepped in the room, and I relaxed a bit. Perhaps because the unknown would be much more terrifying than this. I noticed that its eyes were a lot less creepy than they had been in my dream. They looked expressive, and right now they looked concerned. I put two and two together and realised that this horse might be intelligent. It spoke before I could, in English, with a southern American accent. It was definitely female. "So yer finally awake! Ah heard y'all screamin' in the forest back there and ah ran over tah see if y'all were okay and then yah collapsed. Ah brought y'over to my barn for you tah rest."

I was perplexed, and after a moment of silence, I quickly moved over what she had said and picked out the key info. For a start, I had been asleep for a while, which explained the light outside. Secondly, I had been in a forest, presumably in the middle of nowhere. Most importantly, she was concerned for me and therefore not hostile. Also, I was in a barn.

Without having anything else to go on, I said the only thing that I could think of. "Hi," I said. She looked at me, as if judging me, or maybe judging what to say next. I sighed, and carried on. "Sorry, I'm sort of in a bad position at the moment. I... I have no idea what to do." I noticed that I was taking this much better than I thought I would. She still looked like she was deciding something, and a thought occurred. "Are we in America?" I asked her. I had lived in England my whole life, and I noticed that her accent was American. She stood up straight at being asked a question, as if snapped out of a trance.

"Ah can't say ah've heard of 'America' anywhere in Equestria before, but Ponyville is where y'are now." My face visibly fell. Not even close to resembling home. However, I noticed the names. 'Equestria'. Wasn't that to do with horses? And 'Ponyville'? I began to notice a pattern. Was this place populated solely by horses, so much so that they give the places horsey names? Too many questions spawned in my head, too fast for me to think of logical answers for them. My first priority was probably to find a way to get home, which would first mean finding out where, exactly, home was. I thought for a second. To my knowledge, nobody on Earth had ever found these talking horses before, or these horsey place names. Was I even on Earth anymore? The thought of being on another planet scared me. I had started to think about possible explanations involving alien ubductions when the horse spoke again.

"Ah'm sorry, where are mah manners? Mah name's Applejack," She said. Applejack looked at me, and I correctly assumed that she was waiting for me to say my name.

"Uh... Pleased to meet you. My name is Eddie," I said, never one to forget my manners. I still had no idea where this conversation was going or how it was going to end. Should I tell this horse the truth? That I am a human being, and have no idea how I got here? Or lie, and let her believe that I was supposed to be here? Something told me that this horse would make a valuable friend, and I'd be damned if I ever lied to a friend, but how would I casually mention that I suspect that I'm from a different planet than the one I currently stood on? Or, more accurately, laid down on. I got up to stand on my legs, but a searing pain shot through all four of them, almost making me forget about the pain from the flurry of questions that flowed though my head.

"Whoa nelly," I heard her say, but I had tilted my head down as a reaction to the pain. "Ah always like a pusher, but Ah really don't think yah should try using yer hooves just yet." Was the pain the result of a transformation? Sloppy biological work? A bad teleport? I was so filled with questions that I barely felt her gently push me back down after walking closer. I glanced at her, but lying down did stop the pain, so I made no moves to stop her. "Wait right there," she spoke again, with concern in her voice. "Ah'll go fetch mah friend Fluttershy. She usually works with animals, but she'd probably know a thing or two about what's wrong with yah." Without waiting for an answer, she was off, and closed the barn door on the way out.

I briefly wondered if she locked the door behind her. I doubted it, since she sounded sincere. I wasn't taking any chances though, and I tried standing up as images of Applejack going to find her harsh "Queen bee" to get it to kill me flashed through my mind. The same pain coursed through my body, but I managed to get my body off the hay. I tried to walk, but my legs went all over the place. Whether it was the pain or being a horse, I wasn't sure, but I ended up on the cold wooden floor. I tried again, but fell down faster and harder. I began to panic, but cursing calmed my nerves. I wondered if I should give up trying, but I didn't stand up so I could be eaten alive. Or helped by the horses friend. Some critical instinct inside me told me to run while I still had a chance, but another part of me told me to trust the only friendly face I'd seen since I became a horse. The only face I'd seen since I became a horse.

I looked up at the door and realised I had no idea of what lie behind there. Another world? A set? The end of a dream? The thought of this all being a dream made me relax. I closed my eyes tight, and reopened them. The barn walls still stood high around me, and I started getting worried. Usually, when I became aware of my dreams, I could easily wake myself up.

I looked at the hard barn walls, and briefly wondered if I could smash my head against one to wake myself up. I remembered the pain from my legs, and I realised that if pain could wake me up, my legs would do the trick. I thought back to my earlier fantasies of being eaten alive, and tried standing up again. There was a lot of pain, but I managed to stay standing. As long as I could figure out how to walk, I'd be able to get out.

I looked down, and raised my front left hoof. Easy enough. I placed it on the ground a little in front of me, and put weight on it, anticipating the pain that washed over me. I picked up my right hoof, and found myself off balance. I quickly placed it next to my left one, and found myself stretched. I looked to my back hooves, and wondered which one to risk moving. The pain was making it hard to concentrate.

I picked my back left hoof, to follow the order of my front hooves. I managed to raise it, and fell to my side, the momentum taking me to my back. I lied there for a while, staring up at the ceiling, feeling the brief pain in my left subside. I felt foolish, and kept laying there, accepting defeat. Maybe the orange horse was right, and she'd bring her friend and I can learn how to walk when my legs weren't so broken.

I gasped out loud. What if my legs were broken? I dismissed it quickly, as I was sure I wouldn't be able to walk at all. Just then, the door reopened and the orange horse walked in again. Behind her, a yellow horse peeked her head in. Despite hiding behind her pink hair, she stared at me, along with Applejack. Still on my back, all I could do was stare back.

"Uh... Are y'havin' a little trouble there?" Applejack asked me, as the yellow horse walked further in, still behind Applejack. No tricks then. Yet. I considered rolling onto my side and getting back up, but decided against it, having already finished my battle with pain. The yellow one remained silent, and I wondered if she was the one supposed to help me. I decided to respond, nonchalantly, "I'm fine, just having a little walking issue." I was pleased with myself being able to communicate with these things so well.

Despite their resemblances to normal horses, these things were a lot different. For starters, their hair. Horses had manes, right? From my knowledge, a horses mane only ran down their necks and a little on their heads, and they certainly didn't have as much hair as these ones did. Secondly, their eyes were huge. Much larger than a horses eye, and certainly larger than a humans. Hell, I was willing to bet that they had larger eyes than anything on Earth. Except maybe wales.

Moving further down, their hooves weren't actually hooves, but their legs just ended with nothing at the bottom. Most obviously, they had different colours to horses. I was coloured bright pink! I moved a hoof up to my eyes to look at it again, and cringed, partly because of the colour, but mostly from the pain. That was why the yellow horse, Fluttershy, I believe, was here. The pain.

She had still neglected to speak, and an awkward silence had washed over the barn while I was in deep thought. I carefully and painfully lowered my hoof to the ground, rolling back into my four hooves by bending down, intending to respark the conversation, when Fluttershy took note of my apparent injury and gasped dramatically.

"Oh my!" she stated, almost whispering. She walked up to me, keeping her head down, and pulled a medical pack out of nowhere. I realised she was a professional, and I also could have sworn that Applejack had said that Fluttershy usually only worked with animals, so was the medical box for animals too? All of these questions were washed out of my mind when Fluttershy reached my side and I caught sight of wings on her sides.

Shocked, I looked back to Applejack to see if she had wings too, but she didn't as far as I could see. Looking around at my sides in turn, I could see that I had no wings either. Was this some kind of horse overlord, signified by the wings? I thought back, once again, to my earlier visions of Applejack getting her leader to destroy me, and suddenly I really wanted to escape.

It was too late, however, as Fluttershy had lifted my hoof in hers and was wrapping bandages around it. I dismissed it, as she seemed like she genuinely cared, although it was a little odd that she didn't ask me for permission first. Working with animals must mean that she wasn't used to getting the ok before helping her 'patients'. I wondered why bandages were needed, as there was no visible wound, but she knew what she was doing, supposedly, so I didn't question it. As Fluttershy started on the next leg, Applejack tried to make more conversation.

"So, where y'all from, anyways?" she asked me. I almost gulped. Now or never, I thought, but I quickly chose a third option.

"Really far away," I replied, and then added for good measure, "I'm kind of lost."

Applejack paused, and tried to dig deeper. She clearly knew what she was doing. "Any place names?"

I tried my luck. "London."

She clearly hadn't heard of it. Fluttershy, however, perked up. "Lunadon?" she asked, almost excitedly. Looks like my lying by omission luck ran out. The horses had a version of London? Fluttershy carried on. "What's it like? Do you know Pulse? Are you planning to go back?" She got quieter the more she spoke, as if suddenly aware that she was blabbering. Applejack looked back to me, still confused. I was stuck. Do I tell them the truth? Or keep up the charade? I was sure they would stop helping me if a started saying that I actually wasn't a horse, but I'd also seen it in films a hundred times. Whenever someone lied, the one they lied to always found out eventually, and they almost always resented the liar for it. If I lied, I'd have to tell them the truth before they figured it out. I lied.

"It's busy." I prayed that their version of London was like mine. "It's too big for me to know Pulse, and I also have no idea where it is from here." I was relieved to see that the two horses accepted it, but realised my mistake too late.

"Oh! I could help you get back, it's just south of here!" Fluttershy said, 'helpfully'. I accidentally put my hoof to the ground while thinking for an answer, winced as the pain came back, and lifted it again sheepishly. Fluttershy took note of this. "But you're in no condition to go anywhere now," she added. Problem solved, then. For now.

"Uh, Fluttershy," Applejack interjected, putting the pieces together. "As much as Ah want to help the colt," She had lowered her voice, probably thinking that I couldn't hear. "Ah need this barn empty." Fluttershy got the message.

"Oh, that's fine, Applejack," She said softly, "He can stay in my house while he recovers." If I had been doing anything, I would have stopped dead. Something told me that her wanting me to stay with her was something more than to look after me as a patient. She was way too quick in suggesting it.

Later, while Fluttershy was walking me to her house, I had a chance to see Ponyville in detail. Luckily, for my curious mind, Fluttershy's house was on the other side of the town, which basically gave me a tour of the entire place. I was right; The entire place was filled with horses.

I learned from random snippets of conversations that they called themselves ponies, which explained Ponyville. I also learned that pegasi, winged like Fluttershy, were common, along with unicorns, who I saw could lift things into the air with their horns. Nobody mentioned what ponies without wings or a horn, like myself, were called, so I had no idea what to call myself.

As I was helped across town, I heard a few of them mutter "Blank Flank" under their breath, and I looked at them to find that they had pictures on theirs. Were they tattoos? I couldn't think of a way to incorporate it into a conversation to find out more. I didn't see any of them run to any police, so I figured that it didn't matter that much that I didn't have a picture.

Come to think of it, I hadn't seen any police at all. Were they monitored remotely? I couldn't see any cameras, or anything that could be a camera. I didn't see any advanced technology at all. Thinking back to the pictures, from what I could see, the pictures represented something about the pony they were on. I saw one with flowers on her side watering some flowers, and one with an hourglass was running, which was odd. Did the hourglass signify that he was always late?

Also, genders. The females all seemed to have huge eyelashes, while the males didn't seem to have any at all. While I was in my train of thought, a blue pegasus with a vibrant rainbow mane flew down, expertly slowing to a halt while still in the air. "Hey! Fluttershy!" she shouted, despite only being a few feet away. "Who's your friend?" I guessed she meant me, and wondered if I should speak for myself.

Fluttershy responded. "Oh! Hello, Rainbow Dash." Imaginative name. "This is..." She trailed off when she realised I hadn't told her. She looked at me, and I took the liberty of filling her in.

"My name is Eddie Warren." I carried on. Maybe word would spread and I wouldn't have to repeat myself a hundred times. "I have come from Lon..." I corrected myself. "...Lunadon. I got lost while travelling and found your town." When I finished, Rainbow Dash started grinning.

"Lunadon? The small village south of here?" Small village? "The one where Pulse lives?" Uh oh. Her face fell, ever so slightly, and she frowned a little. "How can you get lost from that?" Both she and Fluttershy gave me a look. Just as I thought of the answer, 'I don't remember', I was attacked by a pink blur. I landed on my back, with the blur in question standing on me, in the form of a pony. The only information my startled mind could take in before she started talking was that she was a female, and she was a slightly darker pink than me.

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie and welcome to Ponyville! I see you've made new friends already which is fantastic and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash and hi Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash they are the best best friends that you can make! Oh I can't wait for you to meet all of my other friends who happen to be everypony in Ponyville and now I have to go plan your surprise party so bye!" She jumped off me, warranting an "Oof!" from me, and sped away, leaving me in the dust. I lied there, blinking, and I noticed how good the clouds looked.

I should have been thankful for the distraction, but even I forgot what was happening in the conversation after that. I managed to pick out that she was called Pinkie Pie, and she apparently was friends with every pony in the town. That struck me as odd that she would specifically only mentioned ponies as her friends. I hadn't seen anything else except for birds. I dismissed it, and looked back at Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, who were looking at me almost sheepishly. Rainbow Dash spoke first.

"...Yeah. That was Pinkie Pie. She knows everyone, and now she knows you," She said, and grinned. "Welcome to the herd. Later, Fluttershy!" She flew off, seemingly heading in a random direction. I guess Pinkie Pie wasn't kidding when she said that she knew every pony in Ponyville. Did she say she was planning a party? The dream of dancing with the girl and Applejack came to my mind, and I suddenly got a huge longing to be back at that party, right there, lying in the dirt. I managed to not burst into tears. Just.

Eventually, we reached Fluttershy's house. It was right next to a scary looking forest, and I noticed that the clouds over it didn't look half as good as the ones over Ponyville. Much more familiar, though. Inside, the house was filled with animals and little animal toys. All creatures, great and small, stared down at me as a was helped through the house with indeterminable gazes. They looked intelligent, and being in a land of talking horses, I wasn't about to dismiss that they were.

Fluttershy led me to a sofa, and laid me down on my back. I felt strangely immobile, and wondered if I would be able to get down if I wanted. Fluttershy spoke to me in a soothing voice, and I was reminded of scary movie villains saying 'Nighty night' as they murdered someone. "As long as you get your rest," she informed me, "You'll be up and about in no time." I wondered how long 'no time' would be, and how we would spend the time together.

I couldn't even bend my bandaged legs, and I found myself again questioning why I needed them. I felt I'd be rude and arrogant if I just asked, and couldn't think of a way to incorporate it into conversation. So, instead, I stared at the animals while Fluttershy walked away, gently humming to herself, and did... Something that I couldn't see.

They were all coming closer to me, curious of why I was here. A little white rabbit jumped onto my stomach, and I hardly felt it at all. It walked right up to my face and stared into my eyes, as if looking for my soul. After staring for a while, making me nervous, it gave a small nod, and span around, jumping off me. I wondered what that meant.

Did the rabbit just accept me? Thank God, as long as a small rabbit thinks I'm ok, then I don't have to have this urge to hurl myself off the nearest cliff anymore. Speaking of God, did the ponies have their own version of Him too? Maybe the rabbit was God, making sure I was ok, I mused. My slight smirk fell when I realised I couldn't stop thinking about the rabbit. It made me feel so helpless, and I actually got scared when it was staring at me. What would it have done if I wasn't 'approved'? I shuddered.

I looked around, trying to see where the rabbit went, when Fluttershy came back from what I assumed to be her kitchen, carrying a steaming bowl on her back. I could see a slight smile on her face, for reasons that I didn't quite understand. I was tired of jumping to conclusions at this point, so I ignored my instinct to run. In one fluid motion, she moved the bowl onto my chest and sat down, and I suddenly felt completely helpless.

As Fluttershy spoke, I quickly tried to shut down the voices telling me that I was going to be eaten by some kind of horrible beast. "Drink this special soup, Eddie, it'll make you feel better," she said, in her soft yet insistent voice. I noticed that she said my name in an awkward way, and, as I obediently started drinking, angling the bowl with my chest, I wondered why.

Fluttershy, I thought, was shy, and she could fly. Rainbow Dash had a mane in the colours of a rainbow, and flew fast. For Applejack, I remember seeing fields of apples as I was being taken to Fluttershy's house, and that other girl... Pinkie Pie? She was coloured pink, but I had no idea what the Pie was supposed to mean. I thought to how couples sometimes call each other 'sweetie pie' or 'cutie pie', and just wrote it off as that. The point is, Eddie didn't mean anything about me, which might look suspicious to everyone else. I hoped that nobody would ask about it.

Then again, I could just tell the truth and change my name. That was another thing. Telling the truth. How would I go about doing that? I suddenly found myself wishing that I hadn't lied at all. Admitting a lie was a lot worse than telling the truth, I suddenly realised. Could I just spill the beans now? Again, I had no idea how I could do it. Everyone had trusted me so much, assumed that I wasn't hostile, and now this animal lover was trying to help my hopefully not broken legs by giving me soup. Which was odd, but the gesture was showing kindness, and I had lied my way in.

As I remember, I didn't tell the truth because I was afraid that they wouldn't help me or accept me. I wondered if this was always the case in my life on Earth. I could remember about my life as a human, with all of the ups and downs that it had. I remember how I was born into a rich family and brought up around all of my snobby siblings. I don't remember me ever lying to get accepted, though. I never needed to.

I finished drinking the soup, and I suddenly felt my eyes become heavy. Fluttershy took hold of the bowl, and looked at me, calmly. It wasn't like a predator waiting to pounce, though, but I could tell she expected me to sleep. I suddenly wondered if this was a trap, or if she was going to do something different to what I suspected these ponies wanted to do to me. I felt myself go red as I thought about what Fluttershy could want me asleep for. I fell asleep before I could think about it anymore, and, for the second time in Equestria, I slept.


	2. Chapter 2

When I had woken up, later that day, Fluttershy had not done any of the things that my mind had come up with. I had found myself feeling a lot better, and I could walk after just a few hours. Fluttershy told me that the pain was probably caused by falling onto them from a height. That caused more questions to be raised about how I came to Ponyville, to which I quickly said that I couldn't remember what happened before I came to Ponyville, or why I'd left 'Lunadon', which was half true.

This made her worry, and she insisted that she checked for any other injuries to make sure that I was OK. I was, as it turned out, and a silence finally passed over us. This was the point that I was well again, and I no longer needed assistance.

I could go back home, or stay, somehow. The problem was, I couldn't go to Lunadon, and I had no reason to stay in Fluttershy's house. Fluttershy seemed to realise this too, and I saw a look of... Sadness? She saw me looking, and hid her face with her mane. She may have been embarrassed, but I had a whole different conflict in my head.

I had lied, and I needed to tell the truth. I found myself wishing that I had never lied, and I realised that, had I told the truth, these ponies would have helped me all the same. I looked guiltily at Fluttershy, but she was looking at the floor, so she didn't catch it.

Just then, there was a rapid knock on the door, and the pink blur bursted in right afterwards, without giving anybody a chance to answer. She managed to tackle me again, and I ended up back on my back, with Pinkie Pie on my chest. She delved right into speaking like it was a prepared speech.

"Eddie! You're late for your party! I planned this super special surprise party for you at Sugarcube Corner and everypony in town is dying to meet you because you're new in town and I told them you'd be there and you're not here so you need to come right now!"

I could only label her emotion as 'playfully serious', as if she could only be playful with her emotions. I realised that this may very well be the case, and I looked back at Pinkie Pie, trying to figure out what to say. She didn't wait for a response, however, and jumped off me in the opposite direction of the door. Before I could move, I felt Pinkie shove both of her hooves into my side and push me along the floor. I may have yelped a little, and I rolled over onto my own hooves.

"I can walk, Pinkie Pie!" I half shouted, still wary from the surprise. Pinkie only started bouncing on her hooves, somehow manoeuvring herself towards the door.

"That's great! Let's get going, Eddie, we don't wanna be even more late!" She called out, already out the door. I looked at Fluttershy, who gave me a weak smile, and I followed Pinkie out the door, without realising that, in all the excitement, I could walk without thinking about it.

Sugercube Corner, it turned out, was a shop, styled to look like a big gingerbread house. It was dark when I walked in, but the lights quickly turned on and loads of ponies jumped out from behind various objects in front of my blinking eyes, and all shouted "Surprise!" at the same time. I found myself wondering how long Pinkie had had them waiting there.

Music started from nowhere and Pinkie Pie started yelling in my ear about how everyone is happy to meet me and that I should now enjoy myself, while the other ponies started talking among themselves. For the first time in Equestria, I finally felt some familiarity.

Parties, having fun, late into the night stuff, this was where I excelled. I started to really enjoy myself, but I later found out that parties in Equestria were a lot more different than parties on Earth. They felt more like birthday parties than actual parties, but I still had fun.

I managed to meet the rest of Pinkie Pie's main group, aside from Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Applejack, there were two unicorns, Rarity and Twilight Sparkle.

The former was a fashion designer, who spoke with class. I had met many who acted like her, but, like me, she seemed to like living closely with friends instead of in higher Equestrian societies. Twilight lived in a library, and she apparently was sent there by Princess Celestia. I had no idea who that was, but I wondered if these ponies had a similar system of government to England.

I couldn't find a way to bring it up in conversation, but I realised that I could look it up in the library that Twilight lived in. Fortunately, I managed to keep the conversation away from my past, and I didn't have to make up more lies about myself.

Eventually, the party was over, and all of the ponies were heading back to their homes to sleep. It was 2 o'clock in the morning and I found myself wondering if these ponies had jobs. I wasn't even sure what day it was. I overheard the six girls who seemed the closest talk about going to Twilight's library after everything had been cleared away, and I wanted to go with them to find out more about Equestria, but I didn't want to intrude on a potential 'girls night in' that would take place.

I realised, however, that without a living space, I didn't have much choice, but that still didn't give me a chance to ask them. The white unicorn, Rarity, noticed me anxiously looking at the group.

"Is something the matter, dear?" She asked, looking at me and attracting the rest of the group's attention to me.

"Well," I began, trying to think fast. "I was wondering if I could, ah, look at some books in the library..." I trailed off, trying to find a reason. "...In order to find out more about Ponyville?" I got quizzical looks, and I realised that late at night probably wasn't a good time for a history lesson. Twilight, however, almost looked pleased.

"Of course you can look at history of Ponyville books, Eddie! Those books usually don't get read because everypony who uses the library already lives in Ponyville!" She almost sounded like Pinkie Pie as she spoke, and I was happy that she'd accepted.

Despite my usual attitude, I stayed silent on the walk to the library while the others chatted about various things to each other. Walking at night, with no other ponies around, save for the six in front of me, gave me a chance to take in all of the scenery.

While, on Earth, it was hard to see at night, Equestria was as visible as anything else. I could see all of the buildings that made up Ponyville, along with mountains, that were circular as if imported straight from Super Mario World. A huge forest lined the other side, and it seemed wild and untamed. I realised that the forest was the one that Fluttershy's house was next to, but I didn't realise that it was so huge.

I also realised that Pinkie Pie had pulled me out of two awkward situations, and I found myself wondering if she did it on purpose. I looked at her, and she was bouncing along on her hooves again, talking innocently like the rest of the group. She just looked like a person... A pony who had no troubles, and no secrets.

I remember her telling me twice about my surprise party before it happened, so I supposed that she was just perfectly carefree enough that everything was a big joke to her. As a matter of fact, everybody I saw here was carefree and happy. I hadn't seen one down-turned face since I became a pony, supposing the rabbit didn't count.

I almost bumped into Rarity as the group stopped, but I managed to stop myself in time. We were at the library. At first, I thought it was a huge tree, but I saw windows and a door at closer inspection. At the top, I could see a balcony with a telescope on it. I wondered if the stars had the same constellations here. Before I could check, however, the rest of the group went inside, and I quickly followed.

The inside of the library was not like most libraries. Instead of isles, all of the books were in a ring around the edges. Twilight turned around to face me, and started speaking.

"The Ponyville history books are over here, Eddie. Right next to the general Equestrian history section." She walked over to a few books, and I followed while she picked a few books out with her telekinesis. "These books are the most informative," she continued, "And should have everything you need about Ponyville's history."

She was carrying four books over to me, and placed the pile in front of me. How much history did this town have? Rarity seemed to be thinking the same thing, and interjected.

"Twilight, We don't want to drown the poor colt in information! A more basic history will do, right?" She was addressing me in the last part.

"Oh, no, it's fine," I said, not really wanting history of the town. I wanted the history of Equestria instead, and Twilight had said that the section was right next to the one she had just pulled books out of. "The more the merrier, eh?"

Later that night, the rest of the girls had gone home to get some sleep. It was already very late, but I had gotten a lot of sleep before. Twilight had agreed to let me keep reading in her library, as long as I wasn't too loud. She was apparently familiar with late nights of studying, and I found it odd that she just let a stranger be in her home while she was asleep.

The ponies obviously didn't have the troubles of Earth like robbers or worse. It didn't feel right, even though it was a lot better. I thought of what might happen if these ponies went to Earth, and I shuddered.

My next obstacle, however, was getting to the book that I wanted. Low down, the books were, 'The History of Fashion in Equestria' and '101 Magical Spells that Aided Equestrian History'. Whoa. Magical spells? Momentarily forgetting my initial goal, I let my curiosity get the better of me and I pulled the book out with my teeth. After a few tries, I managed to get the book open using my hooves, and began reading the first page.

"Throughout history," it began, "Unicorns have been performing magic. It is no surprise, then, that magical spells have aided in solving various problems in Equestria's history. Throughout this book, we will discover what these problems were, and how magic was able to solve them."

I stopped reading to think. Unicorns could perform magic? Was the act of telekinesis a spell? I read further into the book, but it didn't go into detail of the spells. It just described what they did and how they solved problems. Eventually, I closed the book again with my teeth, and tried to knock it back onto the shelf with my muzzle. My only reward was a hurt nose.

I cursed myself for my curiosity. I placed both of my front hooves either side of the book, and pressed in to it, resting on my pony elbows. I managed to lift the book and, after a few tries, slotted it back into its place.

I looked further up the bookcase and saw a brown book that looked important. It was odd to see it unmarked, but it seemed to compensate by having a gold line at the top and bottom of the spine.

It was right next to 'Known Pre-pony Era' and 'Changes in Equestrian Societies', so I suspected that it would tell of the beginning of Equestria. The problem was, I couldn't reach it. It was right on the top shelf, and the builder of the library didn't seem to account for ponies like me, Applejack and Pinkie Pie. I looked around, and saw a sliding ladder.

I walked over to it, and I started pushing it with my head, while looking down. It moved quite easily, and I was glad that it wasn't loud while it was moving. I managed to get it across to the book, but I was now faced with a new problem: Climbing a ladder as a pony.

I put my front left hoof on the ladder, and remembered my earlier adventures with walking. I realised that I never learned to walk, but I was instead distracted by Pinkie Pie. I looked around, wondering if she could help me climb up a ladder if she distracted me again. She was nowhere to be found, however, so I was alone.

I picked up my right front hoof, and placed it on the same step as my left. Using my back hooves, I edged a bit closer to the ladder. I then placed my front left hoof on the next step, followed by my front right one. Now for the tricky part. I picked up my back left hoof, and managed to keep my balance as I placed it on the first step.

With my back right leg, however, I wasn't as lucky. As I lifted it, I lost balance and fell off the ladder with a thud, once again ending up on my back. I cursed under my breath and heard footsteps from upstairs.

I was about to remind myself that they would be hoofsteps instead, but a creature with feet came down the stairs. We stared at each other for a few seconds, and I found myself unable to speak. The creature, however, found its voice faster.

"Who are you?" It exclaimed, and I could still only remain silent. It had a male voice, so I assumed as much was true. He stared at me for a while, and then I saw something in his eyes click. "Oh, you must be the guy Twilight let stay. Sorry, I didn't remember for a second there." He walked the rest of the way and bent down, examining me.

"Are you alright?" He asked, looking at me quizzically. I was still transfixed. He appeared to have scales, he was smaller than me, and I could see spines along his back and down his pointy tail. He waited a few awkward seconds for me to respond, which I still found myself unable to do. He huffed, and spoke to me again, this time annoyed.

"What's the matter, never seen a dragon before?" A dragon? I managed to weakly shake my head, and he considered this. "...Well, now you have. The name's Spike." He held out a clawed hand, and I realised that it was supposed to be a hand shake. I found it a little odd, since I had no hands anymore, but I still pressed a hoof against his hand, and he closed it around my hoof. I found my voice.

"I'm Eddie," I said, simply. Spike looked up at the ladder, and back down to me.

"Do you need a little help there?" He asked, aware of my intention.

"Ah, yes," I replied. "I was trying to reach that big, brown book up there." I pointed a hoof into the general direction of where the book was, and Spike looked up and saw which one I meant.

"The story of Nightmare Moon?" Spike asked, sounding surprised. Story?

"Uh, if it's a story," I began, thinking Spike meant a fictional story, "What's it doing in the 'history' section?"

"Oh," Spike replied. "Twilight insisted that it was put in the history section after the incident." I stared at him blankly. He continued after a few moments. "You know, the whole 'the night will last forever' thing?" I realised that this was a big thing that I couldn't have missed.

"Uh... I must have been asleep for that..." I tried. Spike looked at me oddly, but continued.

"Well, as the story goes, a long time ago, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna ruled Equestria together." I slowly rose to my hooves, while he spoke. "Because all of the ponies slept during Luna's night, she got jealous of Celestia's day, when all of the ponies lived and played. Luna became a mare of darkness, Nightmare Moon, and refused to lower the moon, keeping the night and not letting the sun rise.

"Celestia tried to reason with her, but Nightmare Moon wouldn't budge the night, so Celestia had to use the Elements of Harmony to banish Nightmare Moon into the moon. 1000 years later, she escapes to make night time remain again.

"Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy become the elements and use them to free Luna from Nightmare Moon, where she agrees to return to being co-ruler of Equestria with Celestia.

"The tale was treated as fiction until it turned out to be true. Oddly enough, no books..." I tuned him out because I started silently thinking about the story.

So, Princess Celestia rules Equestria with another Princess, named Luna. The implications were that they were... Married? The more important info, however, was that they were both over 1000 years old. I shivered, wondering how anything could live as long as that.

I also found myself wondering if the two rulers were unicorns, pegasi or... Whatever the others were called. I decided to call them Earth ponies, as they were just like the ones on Earth. I would have to be careful not to call them that to anybody else, and find out what Earth ponies were really called.

In the mean time, Spike had stopped speaking, and he looked like he had just asked a question.

Uh... What?" I tried. Spike sighed, as if asking again was the hardest thing in the world.

"I said, 'How could you have missed everything that happened?'" He repeated. "You said you were asleep, but didn't anyone tell you? It was all over the news. Nobody had ever seen Princess Celestia so happy."

As he finished, he looked at me suspiciously, making me wonder if he was actually going to figure it out. Part of me really wanted to tell him the truth, much more than the ponies. Was I growing attached to him just because he was the most human thing that I had seen since I got here?

Hell, I didn't even know where 'here' was. Another universe? An undiscovered planet or even a location on Earth? I realised that Spike had just asked me another question that I had ignored as I had gone into deep thought again.

"Uh... I... Never-" I was nervous, and I really didn't want to lie to this dragon, so I acted suspicious, prompting Spike to interrupt me.

"Who are you?" He asked, an echo of the first thing he had said to me. "Are you a spy? Are you even from here?" His accusations, especially how justified they were, made me feel even more guilty. Not just for lying to Spike, but lying to everyone else I'd met here too.

I quickly tried to get a hold of the situation.

"No, I'm not spying on you! I..." I trailed off, realising that everything else he asked were the right questions. I tried again, noticing how patient the dragon was being. "I am Eddie Warren, and I'm not a spy."

"You already said that," He reminded me. "Where are you from?"

"I'm from London!" I half-shouted, panicking. Even the liars on TV got more time than this.

"London? Not Lunadon?" He asked, knowing he was catching me out. How much had Twilight told him? I made a decision.

"I am from London, Spike." After a moment of breath, I continued, ordering my words carefully. "London is on Earth. It's a city filled with things called humans. They're like you, Spike. They walk on two legs and talk to each other like the ponies do here.

You may not believe this, but I am a human, it's just that I don't look like one now. I don't know how I'm a pony, I don't even know why I'm a pony or why I'm here, I just woke up like this!" I was beginning to get hysterical as I went on, and Spike's face wasn't making this any easier. It was clear from his expression that he didn't believe me.

After looking at me for a few seconds, Spike suddenly shouted, taking me off guard. "Twilight! Twilight!" he shouted, obviously trying to wake her up and get her downstairs. To do what? I suddenly remembered the book claiming that unicorns could perform spells. I backed up as I heard hoofsteps coming from upstairs. I hit the door with my flanks, and turned around to open it just as I saw purple hooves appear at the top of the stairs. I did the only logical thing at that point.

I ran.


	3. Chapter 3

I ran away from Twilight's library. I ran through the empty town, regretting my mistakes. I began to list them off in my head. The first mistake I made, in Equestria, was lying to Applejack. The next mistake was probably lying to Fluttershy. Had I lied to Fluttershy? That's right, I had told her that I was from Lunadon. Before, I had thought it to be 'half true', but now I realised that I was just kidding myself. I had been justifying lies.

How could I have been so selfish? I was going to live in this world, with these ponies, through a bunch of lies.

I began getting tired, and started to get slower. Where was I going? Looking around, I could tell I was lost. I must have been here before, right? How big was this town? I couldn't see any signs. Just as I began to decide where to go, I heard Twilight's voice call out to me. I had to hide. I tried, as silently as a could, to walk over to a nearby building. I pressed against the wall in complete darkness, waiting for Twilight to pass. After what felt like an hour, I fell asleep.

"Hey, mister, are you all right?"

I heard a high voice with a southern American accent speaking to me. When I opened my eyes, the harsh sun forced me to close them again. Was I hung-over? I couldn't remember having any alcohol last night. Last night... The voice began again, slightly more annoyed this time.

"Hey, wake up!" I felt somebody poke me with a marshmallow. I groaned a little without meaning to, and tried to reach for my eyes to shield them from the sun. My arms felt a little sluggish, but I saw the shadow pass over my closed eyes. Opening them, I saw a little yellow pony standing in front of me. It took a second for all of the memories to come flooding back into my head. I closed my eyes and lowered my head back to the ground, not wanting to get up. Instead, I spoke to the pony.

"I'm fine," I clarified. "Just a little..." I wanted to say hung-over, but this didn't feel like the usual ones I got. If there was any alcohol in those drinks, it was unlike anything I had had before. Of course, I had never been surrounded by sentient ponies in maybe a different universe before, either. "I'm just a little ill, that's all." The pony seemed like a child, so I wasn't sure I should go over the finer points of alcohol with her. I tried to roll over, but my pony limbs were non-compliant. I looked the filly up and down to examine her closer. She had a red mane that had a large, pink bow in it. Her accent was on par with Applejack's.

"Hey, are you related to Applejack?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Applejack's mah big sister. Do you know her?" She replied, her expression changing from glaring to surprised. Her eyes went wider when she spoke again before I could answer. "Hey, I know you! You're that pony that Pinkie Pie threw a party for, right? Twilight's been lookin' for you everywhere!"

I recoiled slightly as memories of last night flashed before my eyes. I remembered how scared I was, and now felt foolish in daylight. The pony began to wonder off, looking around, probably searching for Twilight. I wasn't sure I wanted to see Twilight again just yet.

"Wait!" I yelled out, making the pony turn back around. I tried again to get myself off my back, this time managing to roll to my side. "I'll go find Twilight myself and talk to her, OK?" I couldn't see what the pony was doing, as I was now facing away from her. I struggled and focused my limbs, trying to get myself to stand up.

"Twilight's library isn't that far away. I could take you there if you want!" I heard her voice say. She was apparently unaware that I was struggling.

"I know where it is," I replied. I was about to ask for help when Pinkie Pie came in out of somewhere I couldn't see.

"Hey! Eddie! Twilight's been looking for you everywhere! You have to come quickly! She wants to go into the Everfree forest to find you!" She was speaking in surprisingly short sentences, for her. I rolled onto my front to get a better look at her facial expression, where I would later note that she once again distracted me enough for me to forget that I don't know how to fully work the body I was in. She looked frantic, but I was still unable to take her seriously. I stood up on all fours and stretched a little.

"In that case, we should probably get going."

We reached the library in due time, just in time to catch Twilight leaving. She looked surprised to see us, and then looked guilty as if caught doing something wrong.

"Oh, Eddie! I was just about to find you. You ran off last night..." She trailed off, awaiting an answer as to why.

"Well," I paused, ordering my words. "I was tired." I managed to speak with the same practised way that I had picked up over the years. "I wasn't really feeling right, and I guess I was scared by a dragon." Most of it was true.

Twilight looked guilty again. "I'm sorry about Spike, he wasn't trying to scare you, he just gets a little wary of new guests." She looked at AppleBloom and Pinkie Pie, looking unsure. Both of them seemed to be looking pleased with themselves when I looked back to them. An awkward silence fell over us. Twilight eventually broke the silence. "Would you like to come in?"

"Sure," I casually replied. Twilight backed away from her door and I walked past her. Pinkie Pie refused and said that she had to do something to do with cakes. AppleBloom also declined the offer, saying something about cutie marks. I was focusing more on Twilight, as she was visibly relieved when the two ponies walked away. She closed the door and turned towards me, allowing me to see the determined look in her face. She jumped right into what she wanted to say.

"Spike told me everything," she said. She paused, and then, "Is it true?"

I paused, but realised that there was nothing else I could say. "Yes." I replied, simply. She looked taken aback at this revelation, but she was relieved that she got an answer. An awkward silence descended upon us once more, this time broken by Spike, who I hadn't noticed was sitting on the stairs.

"Can we trust you?" Spike asked, glaring at me.

"Spike!" Twilight warned.

"I'm just being cautious," he said.

I chuckled a little, despite myself. "You can trust me, Spike," I told him. He squinted his eyes a little more, but I couldn't blame him, considering how suspicious I had acted last night. I wondered how I managed to get as terrified as I got, worried about what the peaceful, playful ponies would do to me when they found out that I pretended to be from the universe that I suddenly found myself in when I first met them. I shook my head while remembering what I did. It must have been due to the fatigue of staying up so late.

"Well, how did you get here?" I looked up and was taken aback by Twilight's question. I didn't even know myself. I told her as much. She looked thoughtful for a moment, before continuing. "There are tests I could run to determine the cause of your transportation, if you would like." She surprised me with this information, along with the fact that she trusts me so readily. I decided not to question it. I instead got straight to the point.

"How would you manage that?" I asked, unwittingly.

"Oh, it'd be quite simple, actually. I would just use machinery to determine what kind of dimensional residue you could be leaving, in conjuncture with understood teleportation laws based around natural unicorn teleportation, and also scan for any sorts of radiation that you might be carrying which would point to the method that was used to transport you to Equestria. It would also be possible to take mobile scanning devices to the location that you were taken to. That way, we could see if there is any evidence of some kind of portal that may have brought you into this world. I happen to have several resources that could aid us in trying to find out why and how you are here." Twilight finished and smiled, ready to begin right away while Spike rolled his eyes at me, his suspicious demeanour seeming evaporated.

I was unsure if I even wanted to know how I got here. In fact, I was unsure what I actually planned to do next. Sure, I wanted to go home, but it didn't seem possible. I was wiling to listen to this unicorn, however, considering that she seemed to know what she was doing.

"Sure," I replied. "I guess we could do that."

As it turned out, Twilight was very prepared for discovering some kind of intradimensional gate. She happened to have books lying around about the very idea of portals leading to other universes, which she also happened to have read several times before. We ended up in her basement, where she had some kind of miniature laboratory set up. A lot of the machines seemed nothing like the old-timey civilisation that I had seen out of Equestria, and beeped to themselves regularly despite not doing anything at all. I was left wondering what _else_ this room might get used for.

In no time at all, she managed to convince me to let myself be strapped to one of her machines (for science!), with her waving more beeping equipment in front of my face. Despite everything, after a lot of wasted paper trying to display the non-existent timey-wimey residue I might have on me, she couldn't find anything at all.

She took me back up to the library, where I ended up watching her glare at some books for more answers and ways I could have gotten here that would involve something her machines couldn't sense. After a lot of research, she got me to stand still in the middle of the room while she tried to "magically sense" something on me that would point to dimensional tampering. I felt strangely violated as she waved her glowing horn around me, getting more frustrated when she could find anything.

By the end of the day, Twilight managed to find absolutely nothing despite her troubles. The sun had already set when she decided to call it a day. She told me that, the next day, we could go out into the Everfree forest, the location that I woke up in, to try to find something there. We said our goodbyes, and I departed from the library to return to Fluttershy's house.

The cobblestone road that I trotted along was completely deserted, leaving me to my own thoughts. I wasn't entirely sure that I wanted to tell Fluttershy, or anybody else for that matter, about my dilemma. I'm sure she deserved to know the truth, considering everything she had done for me, but I wasn't sure how she would take it. Would she get mad that I lied to her? Probably.

As I thought about it more, however, I couldn't imagine Fluttershy getting mad at all. I was just being as worried as I always had been. I could tell Fluttershy the truth, just like I told Twilight. I paued, momentarily, forgetting where I was going. I looked around, my eyes adjusting to the darkness, and I recognised the path before me.

I found myself looking up at the forest that managed to tower over the buildings either side of my path. It was dark and ominous, and I got a shiver down my spine when all I could see were the foremost trees. At the same time, I noted how the night seemed to leave everything illuminated despite the fact that I shouldn't even be able to see what was in front of me.

At the same time, the forest seemed to be drawing me towards it. I was walking towards it anyway, as Fluttershy's house directly bordered it, but I felt like I left something deep inside and need to get it. The idea scared me. I eventually made it to Fluttershy's little cottage, where I found Fluttershy feeding some chickens. I called out to her, and she smiled warmly after getting over her initial shock and realising who I was.

"Hello, Eddie. Would you like to spend the night at my house again?" She asked.

I realised that, to her, I should have no reason to still be here. She must have been able to tell why I had come back here, and I was taken aback by her kindness. "Uh, yes, if that's OK with you." I replied. I was about to make up some story about not being able to get to Lunadon, but I realised that I didn't need to. I looked at her, and her expression relayed nothing but pure kindness, yet I was still somehow hesitant about telling her everything.

"Oh no, it's no problem at all. I still have the bed set up on the couch." She paused, thinking. "Unless you'd want to sleep somewhere more comfortable, like in my bed." She paused for another second, waiting for a response, before she realised what she had implied. She stuttered and went red, reiterating. "Um, w-well, of course, I wouldn't be in the bed... w-while you slept." She hid behind her mane, and I suppressed a chuckle.

"I knew what you meant," I replied. "Your sofa is fine." I smiled.

She visibly relaxed at my words. We walked inside her house, and we both wished each other a goodnight before retreating to our respective sleeping places. She had told me to call her if I needed anything from her, but I assured her that I would be fine during the night.

As I turned towards the sofa, however, I was greeted by the same rabbit that had I had met earlier. It was giving me a look that was mixed between a glare and a curious look. It was sitting right where I intended to sleep. I walked a few paces towards it, unsure how to react, still not sure exactly how sentient the creature actually was. It still stared at me, unwavering. I simply sat on the floor, staring back at it with the most emotionless face I could muster. I wasn't sure how I was faring, being unused to my pony face, but the rabbit's expression didn't change.

I was tempted to call Fluttershy, but I didn't want to disturb her. After a few minutes of sitting there, doing nothing, I stood up. I walked closer to the rabbit and moved my face forward to that it was inches from the rabbit. It stood unfazed for a few seconds, before its tiny little face moved to a clearly angry expression. I smartly stood back, narrowly avoiding the swing that the rabbit took at me.

It hopped off the sofa and scampered off, leaving me wondering what the entire exchange was about. I made a mental note to ask Fluttershy about what his behaviour could possibly mean. I shrugged it off, and managed to get myself into the little bed that was set up along the sofa. I eventually fell asleep.

I was running through the forest. I felt my feet touch the floor at every exhausting step I took, I felt my arms move either side of myself. I was in a tuxedo, which restricted my arm movements a little, making it a little hard to run. I had no time to look behind me as I ran through the forest, desperate to get away from the thing that was chasing me.

Suddenly, I saw a light in the forest. It was a wooden cabin! I immediately ran into it, bursting the door open and slamming it shut when I was inside. It was tiny, but I kept my back against the door so the thing wouldn't be able to get it. There were few supplies in the cabin, but there were shotgun shells on the metal shelf on the side. There was a desk to, on it some paper magazines that I didn't care about.

On top of the magazines, there was a large wooden box. It was unlike anything I had seen before, adorned with strange patterns caved into it. Despite my situation, I moved away from the door to get a closer look at the box. I found myself opening it.

Inside, on top of cushiony red velvet, was a huge gem of some kind. It was a big as my entire hand, and I was frozen in place just by the sight of it. I reached out to touch it, and I felt its smooth surface with my hand. It was cold, but I was so captivated by it that I didn't care. I picked it up using both of my hands, feeling its impressive weight make me struggle to hold it.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the thing that was chasing me started banging on the door. I was trapped in the small space with the gem. There was surely no way that I was going to escape from the thing, but I still leaned myself against the door in a vein attempt to stop it from getting in.

I could hear horrible, monstrous squeals coming from the thing, and some kind of tentacle was against the little window that was next to the door. I turned around, and I suddenly saw another door out of the shack. I wasted no time bursting the door open and running through the forest, still holding the gem.

I could still feel the thing behind me, assuming it had given chase again. I carried on running through the forest, aware of it becoming darker with every step I took. Out of nowhere, a root was sticking out of the ground. I tripped on it, dropping the diamond, and I watched it fly through the air where I was a second ago. I put my head down, with anticipation of the thing catching me, but it never came. As I looked up, I was in a clearing, where a large castle was before me.

I stood up, slowly, having no idea how I got to where I was. I felt compelled to enter the castle, as I was sure the thing must have still been chasing me. I heard my footsteps echoing once I was inside the castle. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. I walked town random hallways, yet I felt I was moving towards something. Somewhere I needed to go.

Finally, I came into a big room, where I saw five different pedestals. On one of them, I saw the gem that I had picked up earlier. I loud bang from behind me startled me, making me turn around quickly. I heard the same shrieks that I had heard from the monster, and I heard sickly slithering sounds coming from where I was. I stumbled backwards, pure fear coursing through my body. I was trapped, again. There was nothing behind me except a solid wall of brick. I managed to trip over my own feet while moving backwards, and fell on my backside. The noises were very loud now, and it sounded very much like the thing had no signs of slowing down its chase. I finally found myself slumped against a wall, where I was paralysed with fear. I saw a shadow pass over the doorway, and I screamed. Again.


	4. Chapter 4

I screamed. I opened my eyes, and found myself in what I recognised as Fluttershy's house, after a minute. My throat felt sore again, and I realised that I had been screaming for a while. I tried to calm myself, and heard noises from upstairs, signifying that I had woken up Fluttershy.

She was down the stairs in seconds. "Are you all right?" She asked instantly, and began examining me, for, I assumed, injuries.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just had a bad dream, is all," I said. I felt drowsy again, and I could already feel my dream fading from my memory. She, obviously, looked relieved.

She insisted on staying by my side until I slept again, to make sure I would be OK, despite my assurance that I would be. After a few minutes of me still being awake, she began singing what I could only assume was a lullaby to me. I didn't want to be rude and stop her, so I let her sing the song until she was done.

When the song was evidently over, she opened her eyes, but I was still awake. We looked awkwardly at each other for a few minutes, before I finally broke the silence.

"I don't think I'm going to be able to go back to sleep, Fluttershy," I said. I could see the dark sky beginning to turn into the blue of day out of the window. It must have been close to morning. Fluttershy seemed to notice this too.

"Oh! Well, it is almost morning. I suppose there's not much point for us to go back to sleep right now," she said. She began to walk out of the room. "Stay right there, I'll go and make breakfast." She exited the room. I was sure that she had forgotten that I wasn't actually injured.

Breakfast, it turned out, consisted of _sandwiches._ Flower sandwiches, at that. Me, not being aware of the customs of equestrian societies, accepted it without comment. We idly chatted while eating, and Fluttershy eventually asked me about the contents of my dream.

I strained my mind, trying to remember. "Well, I think I was running through a forest, with something chasing me. I remember taking refuge in a log cabin of some kind. I can't really remember much more of what happened after that."

"What an awful thing to dream!" She said.

"Yeah," I agreed. "I guess my mind likes to play tricks on my every now and again." A silence once again passed over us. As if on cue, the sun came over the horizon and shone its light into my eyes, making my look away. Was the sun always this bright?

I looked back at Fluttershy, who was busy gazing at the sunrise. Something stirred in my mind. I closed my eyes, trying to grasp at what it was. Something I was forgetting... I lost it, and opened my eyes to see Fluttershy looking at me curiously. There it was again... "Oh!" I blurted out. Fluttershy tilted her head a little.

_Fluttershy, I'm from another universe._ I had forgotten to tell her. _I've been lying through my teeth since we first met. _It didn't sound very euphoric. I had promised myself I would tell her, though. Not just because it would be worse if she discovered the truth, but because she deserved to know the truth.

"Is something the matter, Eddie?" She asked, looking just about ready to tell me to get back into bed so she can feed me some more soup.

"Uh, I..." I stammered. _I'm an alien. _"I'm late for Twilight," I said. I inwardly groaned. What was I thinking. Fluttershy's face relayed confusion. "I agreed with Twilight that I would meet up in the Everfree forest to..." To research the gateway that send me here from my home planet? "To, uh, research... About the trees." My mind couldn't facepalm enough. For some reason, she accepted this.

"Oh, okay," she said. She looked over to the sunrise again, and then back to me. "It's a little early, though, isn't it?"

I chuckled a little. "I suppose it is," I said. It took all of me that I could muster not to slam my head into the table. Why couldn't I tell her? Of course, I was afraid of her turning against me. Didn't I already go through this with myself, though? Twilight wasn't upset (or enraged), and Fluttershy wouldn't be either.

As I looked at her, though, I wondered if it was too late to still tell her at this breakfast table. Before I even began to consider what I would say, though, my mind flooded with doubt again. There must have been better conditions to let her know, after all. Not after I had just woken her up, while were still getting over the fatigue that came from waking up.

No, a much better way to tell her would be later in the day. After Twilight had finished looking for other-wordly things, I could come back here. We would both be ready, me to muster up the courage to tell her, and her to let such a wild idea into her head. Yes, I could tell her later. I will tell her later.

Eventually, Fluttershy explained that she had to feed the animals that would be waking up at this time. I understood, and also excused myself to go and find Twilight. I exited Fluttershy's house, and smelled the air of the early morning. This would be the first day that I would feel comfortable in this place. After thinking about it, I realised that today was the fourth day of my being here, if I counted the night that I was here, when Applejack found me.

I began walking. I may have started to feel more comfortable than I had been here before, but I still missed home. Hell, I missed everything about home. My house, the people I knew, even my stuck-up parents I found myself missing. That not to mention Rebecca, who I just happened to have a crush on for a long time. The night before I got here was the night when I finally managed to get her to dance with me.

We were both at a wedding, and everybody was dancing. I had though, why not? I didn't regret it. I suddenly felt a pang of sadness, and just managed to stop myself from breaking down, crying. I breathed heavily. Twilight was going to find something in the forest. They had teleportation, for crying out loud! Of course I would be able to get home at the end of this.

With renewed vigour, I began walking again. I began wondering about my family, my friends. What were they doing? How were they coping? Does time even pass the same way it does here for them? I had too many unanswered questions floating around. I wasn't even sure if any of them would ever get answered. Of course they would. I would get home. Twilight will find a way.

I was afraid at how many times I was having to repeat that to myself.

At last, I was there. The library where Twilight resided. The sun was still pretty close to the horizon, and I wondered if it might be too early for her. I hesitantly knocked at the door, albeit softly. No response. Of course it was too early for her.

I looked around, for something to do. I could come back a little later. We had just agreed to meet "in the morning" after all. I spotted some other ponies standing a few feet away from me, talking amongst themselves. I didn't recognise them, although I was sure that they must have been at the party that Pinkie Pie threw for me. I automatically tuned into their conversation.

"The new pony in town is weird, isn't he?" Said one of them, a green pony.

"I know," replied the other one, a creamy coloured pony. "Pinkie said that he was only staying here for a short while, but he isn't showing any signs of moving."

I realised that they must have been talking about me. Gossip?

"I heard that he spent all day yesterday in Twilight Sparkle's library," the first pony said.

At that point, a pegasus joined them, this time flying in after apparently listening into the conversation just as I was. She was blueish grey, with a blonde mane. One of her eyes seemed a little off. "I heard from Applebloom that she found him sleeping in an alley," she said. I found myself wondering if they had anything else to talk about.

The creamy pony spoke again, and said, "As if we need any more weirdos in Ponyville. I wonder if we'll ever get any normal stallions."

The greyish blue pony nodded, but, after a moment of thought, added, "He's cute, though."

I was taken aback by this, not knowing what to think. Does pink ever go with purple? Just then, the door to Twilight's library opened up again, with the pony herself standing in the door. The noise attracted the other ponies, who then saw me not too far away. The blueish grey pony blushed and flew off when she saw me.

"Eddie!" Twilight said, apparently oblivious to the other ponies. "I thought I heard you out here. I didn't expect you so soon. Would you like to come in?" I agreed, and walked in. "I need to get the proper equipment ready, which shouldn't take too long." She closed the door. "Do you remember where you first found yourself in the forest?" She asked me, while walking towards the lab from yesterday. I followed.

"I blacked out before Applejack took me to her barn, but we could ask her where she found me." I waited at the door.

"Perfect!" I heard her reply. After some crashing sounds, she came back up the stairs, carrying a number of strange devices with her in her telekinetic grip. She looked uncertain, though. "But, I wanted Pinkie Pie to leave before I asked you about what you told Spike because I thought you might not want anybody else to know. Are you OK with Applejack knowing about your origins?"

I thought about it for a moment. I was still unsure how she would take how I lied to her, but I felt that Applejack, along with Twilight's other friends (I wasn't sure how I felt about the entire gossiping town knowing) deserved to know the truth. I felt uneasy breaking the news to Fluttershy, but I was alone then. Twilight would be with me, and Applejack was one of Twilight's friends. What was I going to say, that I didn't want her to know? I did want her to know.

"Sure," I replied. "She deserves to know the truth."

We found ourselves at Applejack's farm in no time at all. I hesitated a little outside, but went in when Twilight trotted past me, oblivious to my pause. We found Applejack kicking some trees with her hind legs. I was amazed how the apple's just fell down from the force.

"Oh, hey Twilight, Eddie," she said, when she saw us. Twilight said her hello and then turned to me.

"Uh, hello, Applejack." I said, uneasily. She sensed that something was wrong, and gave me a serious and concerned look. I wasn't sure if I should start with the reveal or to just ask her where she found me. I chose a combination of the two. "You know how you found me screaming in the forest..." I trailed off, beginning to get nervous. She nodded, slowly. "Well, didn't you wonder why I was screaming?" I asked, trying to remain calm.

"I just figured that you were hurt or somethin'," she replied.

"Well, the thing is, I haven't been entirely truthful with you, Applejack," I said. She glanced at Twilight, who just nodded. "You see, I'm actually not from Lunadon, as I originally had you believe." I paused, gulping. Her expression still looked concerned. "I actually aren't from Equestria at all. I'm from somewhere called Earth, from a city called London. That's what I originally said.

"When you spoke to me, I lied to you, because I feared that you would act aggressive or leave me to die. Hell, I was afraid of you, as a species that I hadn't come across. I thought you might be trapping me, or going to eat me, or something like that." Stopped, carefully trying to decide what Applejack was thinking. She looked thoughtful for a little bit, before looking at Twilight.

"Is this true?" She asked. I was taken aback, a way I seemed to commonly feel here, before mentally facepalming. Of course she wouldn't believe me. It was a wonder that Twilight and Spike believed me. Twilight also looked surprised.

"Applejack, you're the element of honesty. Can't you tell if he's lying or not?" Of course, Spike had mentioned something about them being the 'elements of harmony'. I made a note to ask about that again later.

Applejack rolled her eyes. "Ah can't magically tell whether somepony is lying or not, Twilight. If Ah could, don't you think Ah would have been able to tell that Zecora didn't mean us harm, or that Discord was manipulating me? Ah think you've been reading too many Supermare books." She turned back to me. "If Twilight came all the way over here with you, she must believe you. Ah trust her judgement, and I also understand why you wouldn't want me to know right away."

I was grateful, though I got the impression that she didn't really believe me that much. I was OK with that. Twilight picked up what I had forgotten.

"Well, now we have that out of the way, Applejack, do you remember where you had found Eddie?" Applejack seemed to just then notice the bags, 'saddlebags', Twilight had called them, that were at Twilight's sides.

"Ah don't know, Twilight. It was in the Everfree forest. Is it a good idea to go in there, just to see where Eddie was found?" Twilight nodded, explaining what she intended to do at the location. "Well, if you're sure. Ah'll take you there."

We didn't have to go too deep into the forest, but the entire place still seemed to suck all light out of itself. I began to get very hopeful that I would return home. I felt very good about coming here. I knew Twilight had to find something, right? There must be some kind of trace. I was sure that this forest would end up being the key to my return.

Applejack stopped, and showed us where she had found me lying on the ground. Twilight thanked Applejack, and took a device from her saddlebag, seemingly from random. A switch flicked on it and it began routinely beeping.

"Is that a good thing?" I asked, unsurely.

"Not yet, the beeping just means that it's on. The device will beep faster to alert me that it has found some traces of magical residue, just like a metal detector." I paused, and turned towards me. I chuckled.

"I know what a metal detector is," I said, before she could say anything. She nodded and turned back to her device, where some kind of knobs seemed to be adjusting themselves, which I assumed was her doing.

The beeping didn't change.

She kept taking out device after device, each with their own sci-fiey design. She got more and more frustrated as none of them showed the slightest change. After a short time, Applejack had to excuse herself, in order to keep kicking trees. Eventually, I remembered that my legs had been hurting a lot, when I feared that they were broken. I pointed out to Twilight that I may have materialised in the air and fallen.

I was surprised when she simply made the devices go higher. She scanned the air above us all at once, with them all making their little beeps and and buzzing, still showing no signs of changing. She managed to get the devices to reach the treetops, before taking them back down again, not because she couldn't reach any further, but because there was no point going any higher.

I had only ever seen any unicorns carry things right in front of their faces, so I had assumed that they had limited reach distance. Something else I would have to ask about.

Twilight turned all the devices off, before placing them back into her saddlebags. She sighed, and looked back to me. "I'm sorry, Eddie. I really thought that I'd find something here." She saw the evident disappointment in my face. "Don't worry, though! I can send a letter to the Princess, she might be able to find some kind of way to send you back. In fact, I probably should have sent a letter explaining your situation earlier."

The mention of a princess again reminded me that I was still a little blurry on who either of the princesses were, what their position of power was, and what their relations were to each other. "Twilight," I began, pausing to order my words. "I'm still a little in the dark about who the princesses are. I mean, we have princesses where I come from, but they don't really have any real power."

Twilight paused, before saying, "Of course I can tell you about the princesses. I'll tell you on the way back." She began walking in the direction of Ponyville, and I started to follow before I felt a memory surface. I realised that it was from my dream.

"Twilight! Wait!" I said, without exactly realising what I meant. I looked back, and saw familiar trees. I was sure that this was from my dream.

Before I even realised that I was walking, Twilight snapped me out of whatever I was in. "Eddie? Where are you going?" I looked back at Twilight, seeing her concerned face. She carried on. "It's dangerous deep in the forest, that's what Applejack was wary about. We should probably go back." I felt an unexplained surge of anger flow through me at her insistent commands, but I ignored it, for now.

"I recognise this from my dream, Twilight." I said, more firmly that I had intended.

"What dream, Eddie?" She asked. Of course, I hadn't told her about my dream. I had forgotten it shortly after waking up, but now I could see it clear as day. I told her about every single detail. The running, the monster, the crystal, and the castle. She listened intently, and I saw an element of caution in her face. When I mentioned the castle, I saw something click in her eyes.

She paused after I finished, considering what I had said. Finally, she said, "It was just a dream, Eddie. You were flung out of your world, around new creatures that you thought were going to eat you, along with finding out that you were now one of them. It's only natural that you'd have a nightmare at some point."

I knew I had seen something in her eyes when I mentioned the castle, though. I told her as much. I saw her face look a little guilty, and I knew that I had her. "There's a castle in here, somewhere, isn't there?" I said. I looked around, and continued walking in the direction that I had been running in my dream.

"Eddie! Wait!" She called out, but I kept moving. I had to find out what my dream meant. I heard her trot up to me, and could smell her beside me. "Eddie, we should turn back." I let her know that she could turn back if she wanted, but she refused. "Eddie, the forest is dangerous for you. There are all sorts of monsters in here!" Her protests fell on deaf ears.

She ran into my path, making me stop in my tracks. "Okay, Eddie," she said, panting a little to catch her breath. "There is a castle in here, but it's abandoned. My friends and I fought Nightmare Moon in it."

I raised an eyebrow. "Nightmare Moon?" I knew I had heard the name somewhere. Didn't Spike say something about her bringing eternal night?

"Yes," Twilight continued, apparently grateful that she had stopped me, at least for now. "She was going to bring about eternal night. My friends and I stopped her by turning into the Elements of Harmony and managed to turn her back into Princess Luna."

"Back into Princess Luna?" I asked.

"Yes, she wasn't herself." I stared at her. She carried on. "After we defeated Nightmare Moon, Princess Luna was what was left. It is said that she turned into the wicked mare of darkness after getting jealous of ponies not appreciating her night."

I thought for a moment. "So, what you're saying is, Luna turned evil, but when you... Used the Elements of Harmony against her, she was good again? And you treat her dark side and her good side as two different people?"

Twilight's eyes narrowed. "They _are _different ponies. It is believed by most that Nightmare Moon was some kind of magical being that entered Luna, changing her decisions and her mind to make her do all of the terrible things that she did as Nightmare Moon."

I looked away from Twilight, thinking some more. "So, you defeated her in the castle?" I said, after a while. Twilight nodded. "Well, if Nightmare Moon is a different person to Luna, then what happened to the dark one?" I asked.

Twilight looked thoughtful for a moment, before saying, "She's gone. We defeated her using the Elements."

"How do you know that she's gone?" I countered. Twilight looked at me, curiously. "I mean, did you check? Was there a body?"

"Luna was the body that Nightmare Moon was inhabiting. There wouldn't be a second body." She paused, and then, "Nightmare Moon's armour was left on the ground. It's probably still there..." She trailed off. I smiled.

"So, maybe the point of my dream was to destroy Nightmare Moon for good. Maybe she's still loose." I walked around Twilight, deeper into the forest. Twilight instantly began trotting next to me again, much to my annoyance.

"Eddie, why would a dream tell you to destroy Nightmare Moon? How would your subconscious know?" Twilight carried on trying to convince me to stop moving.

"Maybe I'm part of the Elements of Harmony," I joked.

"There are only six elements, Eddie," Twilight said.

I looked over to Twilight, genuinely curious. "Which are?"

Twilight sighed, and recited them. "The Element of Honesty is Applejack's element, as you heard before. The Element of Generosity is Rarity, Pinkie Pie is Laughter, Fluttershy is Kindness, Rainbow Dash is Loyalty, and my element is Magic."

"Magic?" I said. "That's not harmonious."

Twilight narrowed her eyes again. "It creates the spark the brings them all together. It's a vital element, just like the rest of them!"

"Ah, I see," I said. "So, you're a third wheel."

"I am not a third wheel!" Twilight said, getting annoyed. "Why are you acting like this, Eddie? This isn't how you usually are."

"That's because I'm trying to find out what my dream means, and, for some reason, you're trying to stop me! Why don't you just go home?" I said.

"Eddie, as I've said before, the Everfree forest is dangerous! You're going to get yourself killed if you carry on the way you're going. I will not leave you here to die! Now come back!" She was starting to get angry now.

"Twilight, as much as I would love to spend my time in your library, perhaps so you can perform some more useless tests on me, I'd rather find out why I'm here. If that means trekking into a scary forest, so be it. There are a lot worse things that I could be doing. Will you please go home and let me do my thing?" I glared at her, hoping it would have an effect. It didn't.

"Eddie, as I have said, I will not leave you to get killed by a manticore. You're not going to get killed by a manticore. You are coming back with me right now! Even if that means I have to drag you back to the library by your tail!" Annoyingly, I instinctively flicked it at its mention. "So, are you coming?" She definitely looked pissed.

"I'm not going to go back with you, Twilight. I have to find out what my dream meant! I'm not going to let you stop me." I tried to speak menacingly, but Twilight was unfazed.

"Do you want me to drag you back to Ponyville? I promise, I will do it. Just come back now." She said.

I laughed. "You're not going to do that. Just let me go to the castle. I'll come straight back, I promise." I gave a mockingly sweet smile. "Just after I maybe kill Nightmare Moon."

Twilight growled. "Nightmare Moon is dead! You are not going to go to the castle! This is your last warning!"

I sighed, and began trotting a little faster. "Twilight, I-" I was interrupted as I felt a pull on my tail. Twilight had the end of it her telekinetic grip. I pulled forward a little, but I couldn't manage to get free. I glared at her.

"I warned you," she said, simply, before turning around and trotting back, pulling my tail along with her. It was my turn to growl, now. I pressed my hooves down into the floor, but I found nothing to grip.

"Twilight! Let me go!" I shouted. I reached for a root that was sticking out of the ground, and my front legs clumsily managed to wrap around it, making Twilight stop. She pulled on my tail a few times, getting more forceful each time.

"Eddie! We're going home! Now! Let! Go! Of! The! Root!" Each of her words were punctuated by a pull on my tail, but I still didn't let go, despite the pain. I saw her focus more, and I saw my entire body get illuminated by her magic field. I then felt my entire body being pulled towards Twilight. I tightened my grip on the root and hung on as if my life depended on it.

In only a few seconds, I lost my grip. Twilight, apparently not expecting this, was taken off guard, and didn't manage to move out of the way in time as I was flung towards her. We collided, and were both sent tumbling back a few feet. I ended up on top of her, and we both ended up panting from our efforts.

Just then, I heard a voice calling out Twilight and my names. I instantly recognised it as Fluttershy's voice. I spotted her, through a clearing, the same time she spotted me. She ran towards us, and stopped when she saw the state we were in. "Oh, I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

Twilight used a forehoof to push me off her, and stood up. "No, Fluttershy," she said. "For some reason, Eddie here wants to go wandering deep into the forest!"

I began to get up, but felt the ground move away from my hooves as Twilight's familiar glow enveloped my body. I groaned. Twilight walked past Fluttershy, carrying me along with her, with a successful grin on her face. "Come on, Fluttershy, we can go home now," Twilight said. Fluttershy still looked unsure, but she didn't say anything, just look uneasily up at me.

At that point, I was too exhausted to even protest, and I knew that nothing I could say would convince Twilight to put me down, not after everything she did to get me to go along with her. Being in her telekinetic grip with surprisingly comfortable, despite the fact that I couldn't even wiggle any of my legs.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "What the Hell?" Right? But, there is a logical explanation for the way I was acting. You may have got it already, but I'm not going to spoil it for you. Trust me when I say, it's only going to go downhill from here.


	5. Chapter 5

**Gods, the last chapter was incredibly mistake ridden. I wrote it at about 2:00 in the morning. I'll make sure to proof-read this one, don't worry. **

**Also, sorry for the late-ish chapter. **

I stirred. I could see the shadows of shapes moving beyond my eyelids. I could hear muffled voices but I couldn't tell what they were saying. I could feel something cold around my neck, but I was still too tired to comprehend it for the moment. Suddenly, I heard a door open and a voice that I recognised.

"Maybe you should try talking to him again," It said. I opened my eyes, and a little purple dragon was standing in front of me.

Of course.

I clumsily stood up, still feeling the fatigue of tiredness weighing me down. A chain chinked from somewhere. "Oh, hey, Spike," I said, smiling. He turned around and jumped back a little in surprise at the sound of me. I tilted my head a little, confused.

Twilight burst through the door. "He's awake?" she said. She looked at me, and seemed to relax a little. "Ah, good, you're awake."

I started to walk towards her a little, but I got pulled back by my neck and choked a little. I looked behind me to see that I was _chained to the wall_ by something around my neck. "Twilight, why am I..." I began, but trailed off when it all came back to me.

The previous day, by the time Twilight had carried me out of the forest, it was night time. Fluttershy departed at Twilight's door to go back to her house at Twilight's insistence that we were OK.

She had brought me in where she tried to reason with me, but I still had insisted that I had wanted to venture further into the forest. Thinking about it now, it had seemed pretty unlike me. I could even remember trying to _attack_ Twilight. She had decided to chain me to the wall at that point, where she left the room. I must have fallen asleep after that.

Twilight carried on. "I sent a letter to Princess Celestia about your situation. She was a little sceptical of your story, but she told me she was concerned about your behaviour. She needs to see you as soon as possible."

I found this a little hard to take in. What was wrong with me? Even at this point, I sort of felt justified for wanting to go further into the forest. Still, if what Twilight said about the forest was true... "Twilight... I... That..." I tried to explain myself. "That's not how I usually am," I said.

Twilight's expression softened slightly. "I know, Eddie. That's what the Princess is worried about. How do you feel now?" She asked.

"I feel... More like myself." I said. "Do you think you could... Unchain me from the wall, now?" I noticed that Spike's expression changed to a fearful one.

Twilight also looked a bit worried, but seemed to shake it off. "If you're sure you're back to normal," she said.

Her horn glowed briefly, before the collar around my neck fell off. I found myself trying not to think of why she had it at such short notice.

I rubbed my neck with my hoof, somehow balancing on three legs. "You mentioned something about the Princess wanting to see me?" I asked.

Twilight began walking out of the room while talking. "Yes. As I told you, I was going to send a letter anyway, saying about how you got here, so Princess Celestia could try to find out how to get you home. Since I sent it last night, after you were... Taken care of, I told her about how you were acting strangely.

"I described how you were acting, and she replied, telling me that your actions seemed familiar to her."

"She replied?" I asked. "Already?"

Twilight blinked, "I don't see why she wouldn't..." She trailed off, before realising what I meant. "Oh, Spike can send letters to the Princess, and visa versa, instantly."

"How?" I asked.

She grinned. "Magic."

I blinked, but continued. "So, does that mean she's coming here?"

"Oh, she wanted you to come and see her. She's too busy to come over to here based on a hunch. We're going to Canterlot, Eddie."

Twilight had decided that it was a good idea for me to tell everybody about where I came from. After I explained that I wasn't exactly comfortable with the entire town knowing about my origins, she explained that she was talking about the rest of her friends.

In just a few short hours after our conversation in the library, Twilight had managed to summon almost all of her friends. I found myself wondering why Applejack was here, but wrote it off as them all being the Elements, or something.

Looking around at them, I realised how little I knew about them. Twilight still hadn't returned from finding Pinkie Pie, yet, so the rest of them were waiting with various levels of patience.

Rainbow Dash was flying around in circles, looking bored. Did that mean that she was busy or that she wasn't used to taking a long time doing things? When I had first met her, she had given the impression of being active, but now she was doing nothing at all.

Fluttershy was lying down, idly watching Rainbow Dash. Despite temporarily living with her, I still new little about her. Sure, I knew she was quiet and shy, but everybody who had met her knew that. She looked after animals, but upon seeing her house, that was obvious.

Applejack was idly chatting to Rarity. I found myself wondering how long two people could drone on about nothing for. I was getting the impression that Applejack was hard working, especially since she seemed to be the leader of her farm. She oddly seemed more loyal than Rainbow Dash was, who was apparently supposed to be the Element of Loyalty.

Rarity gave me the impression of being from higher society, something I could relate to. She also seemed to enjoy being and living like the average run-of-the-mill citizen. Perhaps she secretly preferred to be a big fish in a medium pond? That didn't make her act like she was better than anybody else, though. Generosity?

That was another thing I still didn't understand. What did the Elements of Harmony mean? They seemed like some kind of super power, but they were reflected in how their respective owners acted. I had no idea how they worked. Magic, of course, but how did they get used? Magic still always worked a certain way, and the Elements of Harmony were supposed to have 'defeated' Nightmare Moon. Does that mean they used their 'harmony' to talk her out of it? It was too much to think about.

I needed to consider Pinkie Pie, too, even though she wasn't here. If I were to guess, I would say that the reason it was taking Twilight so long to find Pinkie would be because she wouldn't know where Pinkie is. She seemed wild enough to be anywhere. I didn't even know where she lived.

I sighed to myself. How much longer would I be seeing these ponies? The Princess that Twilight had wrote to sounded pretty powerful by the way Twilight had confidence that she would get me home.

Twilight and Pinkie Pie entered the room. Twilight said a quick hello to everybody before coming to stand next to me. Rainbow Dash moved towards the ground without landing and let out a little "Finally!" while everyone looked at us in curiosity.

Twilight looked around the room, briefly, before beginning. "I'm sure you're all wondering why I gathered you all here. The truth may shock you, and you might not believe it at first, but you have to trust Eddie as I do." She looked at me, clearly giving me the indication to take over.

I looked at everybody. "Well, I, uh..." My throat locked up. Visions of all of these aliens turning against me returned just like on the first day. Why was I doing this? I wasn't usually like this. I had given plenty of public speeches when I was back home. I was quick to remind myself that those were to human beings, and wouldn't have a chance of getting everybody mad. Usually.

Unexpectedly, Rarity spoke up. "It's okay, Eddie. I think I know what this is about."

I was taken aback. "You do?"

She walked towards me a little. "Why yes, darling, the signs were obvious."

Even more unexpectedly, Fluttershy nodded. "I know what Rarity's talking about." She said, apparently inspired by her friend's actions. "You and Twilight are... Together now, right?"

I slowly looked at everybody, and they all slowly gave looks of realisation, except Applejack and Twilight, who both looked as confused as I felt.

Rainbow Dash spoke next, grinning. "You and Twilight? When did this happen?" She fell onto her back, laughing.

"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity turned and half-scolded her. "I think it's wonderful that Twilight has found herself a stallion." She said.

Twilight shook her head. "No, you guys, that's not what Eddie was going to say!" She tried to explain.

I completely forgot my earlier fears. "I was trying to say that I'm not actually a pony!" I said.

Pinkie Pie bounced up to me. "You don't have to make up excuses, Eddie! This is great news!"

I shook my head. "Why do you all think this?" I asked.

"The evidence is clear, Eddie." Rarity said. "You stayed in the library the day before yesterday all day. There was chatter of you and Twilight talking about... The things... You do together." I suddenly remembered how there were three ponies talking while I was waiting outside Twilight's library. Did they hear part of our conversation out of context?

"Yeah, and when I brought you to Twilight, I could tell that you two needed me to leave to be together." Pinkie Pie said, happily.

"That was not why we needed to be alone!" Twilight said. "I wasn't sure if Eddie wanted to reveal that he was an alien in front of you!"

Rainbow Dash looked up from her position on the floor. "An alien? That's the best you can come up with?" She laughed even harder than she did before. I could tell that this was getting out of control.

"Twilight," Fluttershy said. "I found you and Eddie in the forest, on top of each other." She blushed slightly. "Panting."

Even the others looked surprised at this. Applejack stepped forward. "Twi'! You told me you were going into the forest to search for something!" She said. I had thought that she would be agreeing with us. Did she really trust me that little?

Twilight was still desperately trying to get a hold of the situation. "Why won't you guys believe me? I'm not in a relationship with Eddie! I'm trying to help him here!"

Rainbow stood up. "Twilight, are you really trying to get us to believe that Eddie just casually let it drop that he was an alien, and that you just believed him with no evidence?"

"It's not good to keep things like this a secret, Twilight. We're just trying to support you, that's all," Rarity said.

"This is just a big misunderstanding." I tried to explain. "I spend all day in Twilight's library because she was trying to scan for some kind of magical... Stuff that might have sent me here. We were in the forest for the same reason. As for the panting... Well... We were having... Difficulty." It only occurred to me what I had unwittingly implied after Rainbow gave another wave of laughter.

"Eddie, I really don't think that's something you should discuss out loud!" Rarity said, looking a little _embarrassed_. I found myself getting angry at their ignorance, but stopped myself, wondering if the same thing was happening like in the Everfree forest.

"That's not what I meant," I said.

Twilight was having less success with hiding her anger. "I am not with Eddie! I'm not doing anything with Eddie other than stopping him from getting killed and trying to find out why he's here!" She yelled. That got their attention.

She explained everything. How I had wanted to go to the castle. How I had been acting differently. How she had to chain me to the wall to get me to calm down.

They all sat in shocked silence for a little while, before Rarity spoke up. "Is this true, Eddie?" She asked. I merely nodded.

Twilight continued, now that everyone was silent. "I sent a letter to Princess Celestia about Eddie not being from here, as well as how Eddie was acting. She has requested that me and Eddie go and see her as soon as possible."

Pinkie Pie was out of her shocked silence immediately. "Ooh, you're going to Canterlot? Can I come? It's been ages since I last went to Canterlot! We could all go on a trip again!" She said. Everybody made noises of agreement.

"Well, I don't see why not," Twilight said.

Everybody began talking to themselves excitedly. "I'm glad we got this sorted out," I said to Twilight.

"Me too. I really didn't expect them to start all that. Sometimes I think they do it on purpose." She sighed. "They mean well, though."

"I suppose Canterlot is a big deal for them, then?" I asked. I still knew next to nothing about the Equestrian's society.

"Canterlot is the capital city of Equestria," she explained. "It's where both of the Princesses live, along with a lot of higher society ponies. I've spent most of my life there."

I considered this, and then had another thought. "If she said to come to her as soon as possible, then why are we waiting until tomorrow to go?" I asked.

She blinked. "The fastest way to Canterlot is by train. It's Sunday, Eddie. Trains don't run on Sundays." Of course they don't. "What about you?" She asked, surprising me.

"What?"

"Well, what's your life like? Before you came here?" She asked. I thought for a second. I wasn't expecting her to ask personal questions like this. What did she want to know? About my family? My job? I didn't really have one to tell about. I decided to start from the beginning.

"Well, I was born into a rich family. I've never really worked much of what could be considered a job. I did have a little company of my own set up, but I never really put much into it," I stopped, wondering if I was boring her.

"What about your family?" she said.

I thought for another moment. "My parents are both rich with companies of their own. My dad has an office supply company set up, while my mother has hospitals of her own. I am an only child, but for some reason I have a big extended family with too many names to remember." I looked to Twilight. "Is there anything else you want to know?"

"Is there anybody else in your life?" She asked.

Oh. "Not really," I replied. "There was this one girl, though, that I... Sorta had a crush on." I said, not even sure myself if I wanted to talk about her. Twilight looked more interested now. "Her name was Rebecca. I had known her for a pretty long time. Just before I got here... I... Let her know about how I felt. She was cool with it, and I started to get somewhere with her. And then, this happened." I looked down at my hooves pointedly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Eddie," she said. "But you might see her again!" She said, trying to be reassuring.

"Yeah," I quietly replied. "Maybe."

Eventually, everybody went home. I was going to go back to Fluttershy's house, but by the time everyone had decided to depart, it was dark. Spike had actually come and put forth a little theory of his that my actions might have bee the result of me being in the dark.

It did seem a little bit like paranoia on his part, but everything seemed to add up. The Everfree forest seemed to suck the light out of itself, and I was acting out then. I was terrified on the second night, after Twilight and Spike had scared me out of the library. I could remember how it felt silly to be scared when the morning had rolled around.

It was a terrifying prospect, but maybe night-time was the key to turning me into... The dark version of myself. It felt silly thinking of it as my 'Darth Vader', considering how serious the problem seemed to be. Me and Twilight both agreed that it would be best if I stayed in the library for the night.

I was in some kind of socialising room, once again lying in a makeshift bed on a sofa. I had a lot of time to contemplate my situation. The next day, I would be going on a train to the capital city of Equestria, where I would be meeting with one of its rulers so that she can examine my behaviour. For what? I had no idea.

I was an alien who had been asked to be taken to their leader. I had no idea what to expect. Was this ruler kind? Tough? Would she order me killed? Would she try to help me? These ponies had been good to me so far, but it somewhat seemed too good.

How am I supposed to act around the leader, anyway? Quiet and respectful? Should I just act the same as I usually did? Again, I had too many questions, and none of them were being answered. I would have to just go with my instincts and hope for the best.

Would she be able to find me a way home? Twilight seemed to have complete confidence that the Princess would know more than she did about possible alternate universes or any way that I could have gotten there. If she couldn't... I didn't know what I would do. I chose to not even think about that.

There was another thing that was bothering me. Twilight's friends had all been insistent that Twilight and I were in a relationship. Did the rest of the town think that? I had no idea. Against everything else that was on my mind, this seemed insignificant, but it was still bothering me more than it should have. If I were to leave, would everybody be bringing our 'relationship' up to her? That would make it a lot more difficult for her to hide that I was actually an alien. Would she even hide it? If I were to stay, would I be able to hide it forever?

My mind was still bringing up if I were to stay here. From what I'd seen of the world so far, it wasn't bad, but I wouldn't want to stay here forever. I still had a life waiting for me back home.

Out of nowhere, I suddenly got a shiver down my pony form. I could almost feel it reverberating through my hooves and tail and everything else that was wrong with my body. I suddenly got memories of being a human. How could I even handle my pony body? I was suddenly getting urges to clench my fists and to turn away from my body. This, not being possible, made me curl up into a fetal position, or, that not even being possible as a pony, a mock-up of it. Even my nose started itching.

I calmed myself, trying to think of something else. I began thinking about Twilight. I thought about how she had tried to help me and believed me instantly, and then how everyone seemed to think we had something together. I shook my head. I wasn't getting feelings for her, was I? No. I knew what it felt like to have feelings for somebody. This wasn't it. Of course it wasn't.

I slept uncomfortably that night.


	6. Chapter 6

**Late chapter is disastrously late, writers block is... writers block, and I am so terribly sorry for it all. I've sat for so long in front of this document trying to figure out how to move it forward. Hopefully I can regain my chapter every thursday thing I had going.**

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Eddie." A pony goddess was speaking to me. Twilight and I were sitting in a large room adorned with shiny things and ribbons, and we were currently having a tea party with a living goddess. It was surreal. "Twilight Sparkle tells me that you have quite the tale to tell," She continued. I snapped out of my surreality to respond to her. "Well," I began, putting my hoof to my chin in deep thought. "I am not from this planet." I did my best to try to ignore her faint amusement. "I don't know why I'm here, or how I got here. I am not actually a pony. I... Also have no idea how to get home." I took my hoof away from my chin and stared down at my cup, wondering how I was supposed to drink my tea while waiting for her response. "I can see how that would be problematic," She said. I could feel her eyes boring into my skull. Her tone shifted slightly. "Tell me about what happens at night." I prodded at the cup. "I act differently, I suppose. I become.." I strained to remember, the memories blurring and mixing with each other. "Cynical and violent." Why were there handles on the cups if its users were ponies? The rainbow maned princess was eerily silent for a moment, causing me to look up. She was looking at me, but her eyes were faint and distant. They seemed to snap back to reality. "That sounds like a problem." She said, vaguely. Twilight jumped in while I looked back down at my cup. "Have you heard of this before?" She asked. I decided to put both of my hooves on opposite sides of the cup. It was hot, but I managed. The Princess paused again. "I fear Eddie may be in a worse predicament than he seems to be in." I shakily lifted the cup off the table, slowly. "He may be diseased." The cup fell out of my hooves, smashing onto the table and making the guards tense. Did I mention the guards? "Diseased?" I spluttered out. The princess stared at me, to the mess on the table, and then back to me. After a moment, she continued. "A very rare disease. I cannot be sure of it at this time, though. While you are displaying a lot of the symptoms, I require you to undertake... Tests, to be sure. You don't mind, do you?" She was completely serious. Had I picked up an alien disease? What kind of effect would it have on me? "Is there a cure?" I asked. She looked at me sadly, creating a disillusion to her response. "There is," She said, sounding uneasy. "It's... Difficult to obtain." She sounded like she was choosing her words carefully. What wasn't she telling me? I didn't care. I potentially had an alien disease. I needed to get rid of it. I glanced over at Twilight to see if she had any input, but she remained silent, in deep thought but still paying attention to me. I looked back to the Princess. "What kind of tests?" I asked. "The disease is almost entirely psychological. Therefore, the tests will be mainly for your mind." I went to interject, but she read my mind. "The other tests will be magical examinations." Twilight began to look thoughtful. "How can it be a magical disease? Eddie is an earth pony." I choked on my own saliva a little. Earth pony was the correct term to use? After a brief curious look at me, the Princess continued. "There are a few magical diseases that can be transmitted to non-magical beings. There are all rare, and..." She trailed off, as if unsure of how to continue. "Most of them are spread on purpose." Twilight gasped. "Do you think somepony did this to Eddie?" She asked. "We cannot out-rule that possibility, Twilight. If Eddie truly was brought here from another world, it could very well be the same thing that infected him." She turned to me. "Finding the source of the infection might be the only way for you to return home." That perked my ears. An odd sensation. It felt like my ears were being pulled in the direction of the Princess, and her voice ended up sounding like she was closer than she actually was. "How will it help me return home?" I asked. "It's possible that whatever brought you here is keeping you here. If we could find out what sort of infection it is, and who infected you, we may be able to use the same kind of magic to return you," Princess Celestia replied. I thought for a moment. This could really be my only ticket home, and I couldn't exactly keep a disease with me. "OK, I'll do some tests," I said, sounding almost too confident. "That's fantastic, Eddie," Celestia said, smiling warmly. "I'll set you and the others with a room to stay tonight. We can start the tests tomorrow." * * * When I had heard the word, 'tests', I had imagined machinery. I had thought that I would be poked with needles and scanned with devices like the ones Twilight had used the day before. Instead, ponies in white lab coats had me running on a treadmill and asked questions while scribbling furiously on notepads. After five minutes, I was finding it hard to keep running, and I had to concentrate to answer their increasingly difficult questions through my sweat. They had me running for around an hour. They eventually led me off the treadmill and into a new room. There was a team of about five colourful unicorns with stern expressions. I had no idea how much they'd been told about me. A light blue one was speaking into an intercom too quietly for me to hear what they were saying. After a few minutes of an awkward silence, the pony turned around to face me. "I'm sure you're a little confused and scared." I wasn't, but her words started to grow on me. "Don't worry, though. This won't hurt a bit. We're about to look at your aurora." Aurora? Before I could ask what she meant, all of the unicorns closed their eyes as their horns lit up, and a wave of nausea passed over me. I fought the urge to throw up, but my vision started to fade. The room seemed to twist and warp before my eyes, and the other ponies turned into shadowy figures. After a moment, I was pulled back into the room with a jolt. The unicorn in front of me gasped for breath, as if she had been held underwater. My legs began to buckle and I felt no better. The other unicorns had moved into a circle around me, and they looked sea-sick. They all moved into a group away from me and began muttering to each other. I still felt uneasy. I was sweating, and dozens of questions were shooting through my mind. What did they mean by aurora? I was guessing that it was something inside me. My soul? The blue pony walked back up to me. "It would seem that you had a little bit of a reaction to our magic. We think that we'll be able to try again without any problems." They were going to do it again? I tried to remind myself that it was for my own good, but I still didn't want to experience what I did before. Regardless, I nodded a little in confirmation. The pony gave me a look of sympathy, before motioning for the other ponies to surround me again. "This will be over in no time," she told me. Once again, their horns lit up, and, without warning, a falling sensation came over me, and everything faded to black. I felt like I was floating. I couldn't see anything, though. I felt almost nothing, I wiggled my fingers, and I could move them OK. My fingers! I couldn't see them, but I could certainly feel them. I brought them down to my body and felt my skin. It was such an odd sensation to be able to slide my fingers along my chest. Almost as odd as how walking felt when I first turned into a pony. I tried clapping my hands, but no sound followed. I realised that I couldn't breathe. I started struggling, and I felt the oddest sensation of tumbling over and over. My throat began to hurt badly from the lack of air. Without warning, I slammed into a wall. I gasped for air on the ground, feeling the cool air-conditioned oxygen pour into my lungs. I was on the floor, in a puddle of what I hoped was sweat, and I felt incredibly nauseous. I instinctively moved my hands under me to push myself up only to find that my arms wouldn't move how I wanted them to. I was a pony again. I was suddenly pulled up to my hooves by a blue glow and found myself face to face with the blue pony again. She look worn out, but she clearly wasn't nearly as bad as me. I noticed out of the corner of my eyes that the others were giving me uneasy looks. "Are you alright?" She asked. I nodded. "These are very... Inconclusive results," she continued. The others started backing away from me but they stopped when the blue pony gave them a stern look. "I will need to inform Princess Celestia right away. In the meantime, we'll set up a place for you to stay until further notice." A few hours later, I found myself in some kind of royal bedroom. Twilight Sparkle and the others were sitting around me. I had told them everything, giving them each different expressions. "They're not going to tell you the results?" Pinkie Pie asked. "I'm sure they will, eventually," I responded. "Eddie was just in the royal laboratories, Pinkie," Twilight explained, turning to face her friend. "What happens in there is top secret. We're lucky we can even talk to him." "Ah find it a li'l suspicious they didn't tell Eddie anything about those tests," Applejack said. While I did agree that it was odd, I was glad to be back with the others. Just thinking of the white rooms made me uneasy. I didn't understand why they were so suspicious of it. They were curing me of a disease, right? "Twilight, why do you think they needed to look at Eddie's aurora?" Rarity asked. Twilight put her hoof to her chin in thought. "Well, very little is known about the aurora of ponies," "Of what they'll tell us," Rainbow Dash snarkily added. "But an aurora reflects a pony's personality," Twilight continued without missing a beat. "An aurora is always changing. Everypony has one. An aurora doesn't exist within a pony, but around one. Based on tests, ponies have concluded that an aurora changes as a pony changes. It seems to be the result of a pony, not a vital part. "If they needed to see his aurora, they must want to see his personality." "What about what I experienced?" I asked. "As I said, nopony really knows, yet. Testing on aurora has been temporarily halted. It is theorised that the experiences of those under the spell reflect who they are. Although, most ponies experience a place they enjoy, like their childhood home. It's odd that you didn't go anywhere." "Does that mean that Eddie as an alien is still inside him somewhere?" Pinkie asked. "In a way, yes." Twilight said. "You said the aurora change, though, Twilight. If I'm a pony now, wouldn't it change with me?" I asked. "Oh, you misunderstand, Eddie. What you experienced wasn't your aurora. Your aurora and yourself are different to each other. An aurora is created by you." Twilight responded. "Then what caused my experience?" I wanted more than the shrug I got in return. I wanted answers. If the aurora was such a mysterious and complicated science, why did the ponies in that lab rely on it so much? Why did they want to view it at all? I had only come here to go home, and I didn't even think that they were working on it. Magical diseases? Aurora? Dragons? I was certain that I didn't want to stay there. Eventually, an important looking pony entered the room, startling everyone. Fluttershy hid, and Rainbow Dash and Applejack jumped up defensively, the former not returning to the ground. "I have been sent to inform you that the responsibility of Master Eddie has been taken over by Her majesty Princess Luna," the pony said in a posh drawl. He left the room before any of us could react. Everyone slowly moved their gazes to me. Princess Luna? The other ruler? Why was I transferred to her? Why did the first one have 'responsibility' of me anyway? It had been an entire day since my meeting with Princess Celestia, and I hadn't seen her since. * * * The next day, a different drawling pony woke us up and told us that Princess Luna wanted to meet me. Twilight Sparkle and the others were mysteriously stopped at the door by dark blue guards. I was ushered in alone. Inside, the room was dark. A table in the middle was lit by candles. Two cups with steam rising from them were sitting on either side. On the side opposite to me, a large, tall dark blue pony was sitting on a cushion. I almost didn't notice her, as she was half hidden in shadow. Based on her crown and armour, I guessed that she was Princess Luna. "Good morning, Eddie," she said. "I've heard a lot about you." "Hello, Princess Luna," I said, uneasily. I didn't know what I was expecting, but it was difficult to get used to these big ones. She sipped her cup. "I'm sure you're wondering why you were transferred." She sounded like she had only recently learned English. "We could say that I have a little bit of an expertise in your... Problem." "You mean that I do have the disease?" I almost interrupted. She looked taken aback. "...I mean to say, I have a little bit of expertise in the disease you are... Theorised to have." She smiled uneasily. I could tell that there was something she wasn't telling me. Was I confirmed for the disease and she wanted to spare my feelings? "Let's not fret about that quite yet, though. I just wanted to get to know you. Tell me about yourself," she continued. I thought for a moment. What did she want to know? My life in England? My personality? "Uh, I'm a human being, I live in England. I..." I began. She chuckled, interrupting me. "Oh, I already know about all of that, Eddie. What is your personality? If you were to, say, describe yourself to a alien goddess," she smiled sweetly. "How would you?" "Well..." I trailed off, not knowing what to say. My brain began to run in default mode, designed for the endless wave of people that would ask me nonsensical questions. "To be honest," I continued, sounding confident. "A lot of people think the only reason for my fame is my father's business, but I'm ready to take the world by storm." I smiled a sickly smile that made me wand to hit myself in the face. It relaxed when I saw Luna's face. "I'm sorry," I continued after a pause. "Old habits die hard, I guess." "OK," she said, giving me a look I couldn't recognise. "I suppose that means that you live in the upper class. Tell me, Eddie: What's it like where you live?" I thought for a moment. I didn't want to alienate her with a potential rant. "I guess it's like anywhere else. I often get invited to parties by people I don't know. I don't even work. My mother and father both have wealthy empires. I don't really see them much." I looked out of a blue tinted window, gazing at the morning sun casting a mixture of orange light and long shadows across the rolling hills below the mountain that the castle rested on. "When I get home, I'm going to make sure I see them. Together." I continued. I looked back over to her to gauge her reaction. As usual, I couldn't read it. She stared at me for a moment, before speaking again. "I'm sure you're curious about the results of your tests." I nodded. "Why did they need to check my aurora?" I asked. "Unfortunately, the results were inconclusive. It seems your that aurora is... Very different to the ones that we're used to seeing. Yours seems to be a lot harder to detect and read. We have never seen anything quite like it. I've spoken to the ponies who helped with your tests. We all agree that further testing is required." "What kind of testing?" I asked. "Important testing," she said, taking a sip of her tea, causing me to have to wait a few agonising seconds. "We'll need to ask you personality questions..." The double doors that I had entered through burst off their hinges. They slid across the floor, slowing down, before bumping into the cushion that I was sitting on. In the empty space that the doors used to occupy, Princess Celestia stood with a ferocious look in her eyes. "Luna!" She shouted, causing the whole room to shake. "Yes?" Luna said, completely calm. Celestia looked like she was going to continue, but her gaze fell onto me. Her expression softened, and she subtly shuffled her hooves a little. "May we have a word?" She said, more calmly, but her anger could be felt through her words. "I'm a little busy, sister," Luna replied. Sister? Celestia looked at me again. "Would you mind excusing us, Eddie?" She said, her tone now completely calm. I could hardly speak, my mouth opting to hang open instead. I got a hold of myself and silently trotted out of the room. * * * I got lost three times on my journey back to my room. I couldn't think straight. Somehow, no noise followed me. Either they had picked a secluded spot or were conversing quietly. I had never seen anyone that angry before, and I had seen some very angry people in my life. Just thinking about Celestia's tone gave me chills. I tried to open the door, but my hooves slid off the doorknob. After a few tries, I jumped up and tried to grasp the doorknob in my mouth, but it hurt my teeth, causing me to instantly fall. How were Earth ponies supposed to open doors? I leaned against the door in despair, but heard a soft click and felt myself falling backwards into the room. I looked up, finding a startled Fluttershy. We awkwardly stared at each other for a moment before I righted myself. "Hello," I said to her, not knowing what else to say. "Oh, hello, Eddie," She replied. I looked around. "Where are the others?" "Well, Twilight has gone to find Princess Celestia..." She trailed off when she saw me shiver. "I wouldn't advise her to," I said. "I just saw her. She was very pi..." I wasn't sure if it was OK to swear in front of this pony. "...She seemed very angry," I finished. "Oh, yes!" She said, "How did your talk with Luna go?" She seemed to forget what I said about Celestia. "She told me that my test results were inconclusive. She wants me to take more tests. We didn't get much further than that," I said. "What kind of tests?" She asked. "That's what I asked. Before she could answer, though, Celestia interrupted." "What was Princess Celestia so angry about?" "I don't know," I answered honestly. "It could have something to do with me being transitioned to Luna. Maybe Luna did it without asking Celestia?" "Oh, she wouldn't be able to do that. Celestia has..." She mysteriously trailed off, partially hiding her face behind her hair. Mane. Before giving me a chance to ask what the problem was, the others burst in. Rainbow Dash hovered in first, talking excitedly to Applejack, who walked in after. Then came in Pinkie Pie, hopping backwards to also babble to Rarity. The group walked up to us, and Rarity opened her mouth, but Rainbow Dash landed in front of her and spoke first. "Hey Fluttershy! Eddie!" She said. We said our hellos. She looked around. "Where's Twilight?" She asked. "She went to find Princess Celestia," Fluttershy responded. "Why?" "I would imagine that it has something to do with Celestia's anger," I said. "Anger?" Rarity said, sounding worried. "Well, she threw some doors off their hinges and shouted at Luna." They all went into shocked silence, staring at me. "We have to stop Twilight!" Rarity shouted. "Yeah, who knows what'll happen if Twilight sees an angry Celestia?" Rainbow said, her eyes wide. "It's really not that bad," I said. "Celestia had calmed down..." "Twilight always goes nuts when she thinks that Princess Celestia's mad!" Pinkie Pie added, looking serious. "Pinkie's right," Applejack said, standing up. "We have to make sure Twilight doesn't see the Princess." She somehow managed to move her hat into its proper position by nodding her head. They all, including Fluttershy, who had been swayed by her friends' worries. Pinkie Pie was last, and she somehow wrapped a forehoof around mine, dragging me along. I stumbled forward with her, trying to think of something to make them see that there was no trouble. * * * We were all exhausted. The entire group and I had gone all over the castle looking for Twilight. The sun was beginning to glow for sunset, and Applejack, who had been almost leading the group, had stopped us in the middle of a large room. There were hallways at the sides of the room, making it look like the heart of the castle. Everyone sat, and Applejack looked defeated. "Where are we?" Pinkie Pie asked. She had seemed to recover and was now staring at a display on one of the walls. I walked over to read it. "In the depth of our hearts, a wick waits to be lit?" Rainbow Dash had come over and read it out loud. "What does that mean?" There was a door right next to it. The other halls around the room didn't have doors, and the frame for this one was considerably smaller than the others. Feeling curiosity take me, I pushed against the door. It held, and no trace of a click emanated from it. A light blue glow that mirrored the one around Rarity's horn enveloped the handle, and it turned. The door opened a little, before hitting something with a bang. Rarity let go of the door and it fell back into place. "Well, _that_ was a bust," Pinkie said. I pushed the door again, but only in frustration, knowing the door wouldn't open. "It's just an old room, Eddie," Rarity said, sounding almost cautious. I knew she was right, but something was drawing me in. I really wanted to know what was behind the door. Without warning, Rainbow Dash swooped down to where Fluttershy was, who was cautiously staying back from the door. She eeped a little in surprise. "Hey, Fluttershy! Did you bring Angel with you?" She asked. I remembered Angel to be Fluttershy's rabbit. "Um, no?" She said, softly. Rainbow Dash stared at her, with an unamused look. After a moment of awkward silence, Fluttershy sheepishly tossed her mane back, revealing the rabbit. I stared at it, wondering how I managed to miss it. Rainbow turned to the rest of us. "Angel can fit into the gap!" She said. The others made noises of agreement and Rarity opened the door once again. I briefly wondered if they felt the same pull that I did. "Oh, I don't know..." Fluttershy objected, while Angel looked grumpy, and clung to Fluttershy's mane. "Angel!" Rainbow Dash suddenly shouted, startling everyone. "Do you think you have what it takes to brave the unknown, to defeat the darkness, and to fight to hopefully move whatever's blocking the door so we can get in?" She shouted, reminding me of a lieutenant. Angel stood up, staring at Rainbow Dash blankly. "I said, do you have what it takes?!" She practically screamed. I could almost hear army music playing. To my surprise, Angel nodded ferociously, eyebrows materialising to show a determined expression. "Then get out there and show me what you're made of!" She shouted. The rabbit jumped off of Fluttershy, and saluted to Rainbow Dash, before running off in the direction of the door. The rabbit ran all the way to the door, but stopped, without warning. It nervously looked into the door, before sprinting off into another hallway without warning. "Angel? Angel!" Fluttershy shouted, before running after it. "Soldier! Get back here!" Rainbow Dash shouted, in a similar manner. "Rainbow dash!" Rarity, who had opened the door again for the rabbit, shouted, letting go of the door handle. Before I knew what I was doing, I ran up and braced against the door, stopping it from shutting again. Applejack also ran after them, leaving me and Pinkie Pie alone with the door. I looked at where they had left, and then back to Pinkie. "Well? Aren't you gonna go after them?" I asked. "They'll be fine. Somepony has to look after you, silly!" She said. "I'm not going anywhere," I countered. "The door won't go any further." "Then why are you holding it open?" I looked up to the door, and to the faint outline of whatever was blocking it. I didn't know. I just knew that I wanted to be in there. The big room that we were in was now quite dark. "Maybe I can push whatever's blocking it out the way," I said, looking back to Pinkie. "Whenever Applejack wants something to happen, she turns around and kicks!" Pinkie said, demonstrating with her rear hooves. I looked back to my own rear. I wondered how well I'd be able to do it. Regardless, I positioned myself so that I was facing directly away from the door, and closed my eyes. I slowly counted down from three and my head and kicked outwards. It felt strangely natural, but my hooves made a small thump on the door and I didn't even feel it, the door staying firmly in place. I heard Pinkie try to suppress a giggle. I glared at her, and closed my eyes again. This time I concentrated, and tried again. A loud thump came from the door this time. It shook and I feared that the door would close again, but I managed to keep it open. "Here, let me help," Pinkie said. She walked up alongside me and got ready to kick, looking at me. I assumed she wanted a countdown. "OK," I said. "Three, two, one, kick!" We both kicked. There was a loud scrape that sounded like something wooden being scraped across a wooden floor. Several bangs followed it, and the door swung open due to me and Pinkie leaning against it and we fell in. I heard Pinkie start giggling, but it abruptly stopped with a choking sound. I looked up to see why she had stopped. I gasped. There was a big wooden man staring back at me. It had a menacing face that looked like it had been carved out of a pumpkin. Its limbs were wide, but connected in segments by visible joints like a puppet. It was in a pile by the door, which led me to believe that it was what was blocking the door. I looked to where Pinkie was, and saw that she looked terrified. "It's OK, Pinkie," I said. "It's just a puppet." Pinkie looked to me and calmed down a little. "What's it of?" She asked. I looked back up at it. If it was standing up, it would be several feet taller than I. I realised that it would be about as tall as Princess Celestia. "It's a..." I trailed off, not wanting to scare her, but I continued anyway. "...Human." "That's what you look like?" She asked, surprised. "Not exactly," I responded. "This is a lot bulkier and..." "Scarier?" Pinkie asked. "Yeah, I suppose." "What's it doing here?" "Let's find out," I said, feeling strange. "Eddie, maybe we should tell Princess Celestia," Pinkie said, sounding serious. Without warning, the door slammed shut. What little light that was in the hallway vanished. My mind reeled at the depravation of light. I pictured the wooden monster with its mask-like face, and tried not to imagine it coming to life. "Pinkie?" I asked. "Yeah?" The darkness responded. I was relieved that the answer came immediately, yet she did sound scared. "Are you alright?" "Sure." After a pause, "Are you?" "Yeah." "What do we do now, Eddie?" I thought. We could either try the door, which I knew was a futile task, or continue down the hallway and hope we find something. I took a deep breath. "Maybe we should continue down the hall," I said, more firmly than I meant to. "Do you really think we should?" "We have no other choice." I walked forward without waiting for an answer. I placed a hoof and I felt it slowly lower. I heard the faint sound of stones moving. A block of light rose from the end of the hallway. Just before it reached the top, I could see that a stone pillar was actually retracting upwards. The hall we were in, along with the puppet, were bathed in a bright white light. I looked to Pinkie, and grinned. It seemed to cheer her up, even a little. We both walked to the end of the hallway, and stepped through doorway, into the white light. We both blinked. We were in a big room. The walls were lined with panels, which seemed much more advanced than what else was found in this world. Right in the centre, producing all the light, was a big glowing ball. It reminded me of the little spheres with electricity in them, which you could touch to make them follow your finger. Pinkie walked right up to it, oohing and looking at it weirdly. I just wanted to know what it was doing here. I could feel something, though. Not in the ball, but beyond it. I walked to the other side of the ball, but found no entrances or exits. I got up on my hind legs and tried to feel for any secret panels or hatches, but the walls were smooth and solid. "What are you looking for, Eddie?" I turned around, and saw Pinkie watching me strangely from the other side of the orb, resting her hooves on it. I didn't know what I was looking for. I had thought that something was on the other side of the ball, but now that I turned around and saw it, I again felt a pull that felt beyond. It was amplified when I looked directly at the ball. I walked up to it, drawn, feeling the pull get stronger. "Eddie?" I only heard Pinkie as an echo. "I'm just looking," I said, absent-mindedly. I put both of my forehooves on the ball, and pushed, as if expecting to fall through. I pushed harder and harder, getting more angered that the ball gave the resistance that it did. "Eddie, what's wrong?" I heard her say. I suddenly remembered the kick she showed me. In frustration, I turned and bucked the ball. Without warning, the room shuddered. We both tried to brace ourselves, but ended up sliding around. The ball cracked. I saw the stone hallway on the engrave fade into whiteness. I wanted to move over to it to see what happened, but the room was shaking too much. The ball began to get cracks all over the surface. We were both hitting the walls hard, now, and I was finding it impossible to see anything. For some reason, I didn't panic. I just knew that this was the right thing. I relaxed. The ball broke. And exploded. And suddenly the pull was physical. 


End file.
